  We present results from a study of the orbits of eclipsing binary stars (EBs)
in the Magellanic Clouds. The samples comprise 4510 EBs found in the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC) by the MACHO project, 2474 LMC EBs found by the OGLE-II
project (of which 1182 are also in the MACHO sample), 1380 in the Small
Magellanic Cloud (SMC) found by the MACHO project, and 1317 SMC EBs found by
the OGLE-II project (of which 677 are also in the MACHO sample); we also
consider the EROS sample of 79 EBs in the bar of the LMC. Statistics of the
phase differences between primary and secondary minima allow us to infer the
statistics of orbital eccentricities within these samples. We confirm the
well-known absence of eccentric orbit in close binary stars. We also find
evidence for rapid circularization in longer period systems when one member
evolves beyond the main sequence, as also found by previous studies.
