222 HIRUNDINIDE. 
Hab. Costa Rica, San Francisco, Irazu (Rogers), Navarro2%, and Rancho Redondo ? 
(Boucard). 
The first specimen of this singular bird was sent us by Mr. H. Rogers in 1877, 
who was then in our employ collecting specimens in Costa Rica. We subsequently 
received others from the same source. In the meantime M. Boucard during his 
visit to Costa Rica obtained several examples at Navarro and Rancho Redondo, two 
of which were figured by Keulemans for Mr. Rowley, and published in the second 
volume of his ‘Ornithological Miscellany’. M. Boucard says that his specimens were 
obtained in semitropical forests below the region of oaks, at an elevation of about 
4000 feet*. He further states that the birds go in pairs along the courses of the 
streams. 
Section II. OSCINES LATIROSTRES. 
Fam. HIRUNDINIDZA*. 
PROGNE. 
Progne, Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 971 (type Hirundo purpurea, L.) ; Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 271. 
We are unable to recognize more than four species of this genus, though several 
others have been described or indicated by Prof. Baird, who, when examining the 
American Swallows for his ‘ Review of American Birds,’ carried the subdivision of this 
genus to extreme limits. After closely comparing a large series of specimens from all 
parts of America, and making the necessary allowance for differences of age, season, 
and individuality, the four species we acknowledge are:—P. purpurea of North America 
and a large portion of South America, in both of which continents it breeds ; P. domi- 
nicensts, which is peculiar to the Antilles, being found in all the larger islands and some 
of the Windward Islands+; P. chalybea, a resident species throughout Tropical America 
from Southern Mexico to Paraguay; and P. tapera, which has also a wide range in 
Tropical America, but which does not enter into our fauna. The two species which 
concern us are P. chalybea, which is by far the commoner and more widely distributed, 
and P. purpurea, which occurs in Mexico and British Honduras. 
Progne may easily be recognized from all other American Hirundinide by its large 
size and robust build. ‘The commissure of the mandible is sinuated ; the nostrils open 
upwards and are nearly circular, the edges being rounded without any overhanging 
membrane. The legs are stout, the tarsus equal to the middle toe without the claw ; 
* The arrangement of the Hirundinide we follow here is that of Prof. Baird, who carefully investigated the 
American genera when compiling his ‘ Review of American Birds.’ The Hirundinide form a more homogeneous 
family than many others of the Oscines; and, at least so far as America is concerned, there are no genera 
leading to other families, as we so frequently find to be the case. 
+ Lawr. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. i. p. 484, 
