APPENDIX. 355 



7. Chert ura Dominicana* " Ilirondelle." 



Chert ura poliura, Lawr. (ncc Tcmm.), Proc. U. S. National .Museum, 



page 62. 



Male. Upper plumage smoky-black; lores black; rump dark 

 ash ; upper tail-coverts brownish-black, just edged with whitish ; tail 

 glossy black, the spines fine and projecting for nearly a quarter of 

 an inch ; wings glossy black ; throat dark grayish-ash ; breast and 

 abdomen of a warm smoky-brown ; under tail-coverts brownish- 

 black ; bill black ; feet yellowish-brown. 



Length (fresh), 4f inches ; wing, 4I ; tail, if. 



The female is similar to the male in plumage. 



Habitat, Dominica. 



Types in National Museum, Washington. 



Remarks. In my Catalogue of the Birds of Dominica (Proc. U. 

 S. Nat. Mus. 1878), I referred this species provisionally to C. poli- 

 u ra, Temm., being partly induced to do so because that species was 

 noted from Tobago, comparatively a not very distant point. I then 

 stated that it agreed quite well with the measurements given of that 

 species by Mr. Sclater, in his Notes of the Cypselidas (Proc. Zool. 

 Soc, 1865, p. 593), but that the wing was shorter. The measure- 

 ment of 3| inches, given by me, was taken from Mr. Ober's note, and 

 is clearly an error, as, in the four specimens sent, the wings of each 

 measure 4^ inches. 



Quite lately I received a collection made in Tobago by Mr. Ober, 

 and found in it an example of C. bracliyura, Jard., which Mr. Sclater 

 says, " Does not seem to be decidedly different from C. fio/iura, 

 Temm., although the tail is rather shorter and the upper coverts are 

 much produced, so as to reach nearly to the end of the rectrices." 

 In Mr. Ober's example from Tobago, the upper coverts reach quite 

 to the end of the tail-feathers. 



The species from Dominica is very distinct, and I think is unde- 

 scribed. The Tobago bird is blacker above, and has the abdomen 

 also black ; it is at once distinguished by its light ashy upper tail- 

 coverts. 



The only other species requiring notice, if it really does, is the 

 Hirundo acuta, Gm„ from Martinique, which does not seem to be 

 recognized by late writers, and is not noticed by Mr. Sclater in his 

 Notes of the Cypselidas. The locality given for it, Martinique, is 

 what has induced me to allude to it. 



Gmelin's name is based upon the ''Sharp-tailed Swallow" of 



