32 BULLETIN 98, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The name Chelidon Forster has recently been revived by Dr. E. 

 Hartert x as the proper generic appellation for Hirundo ruslica and 

 its allies, on the ground that Schaeffer 2 did not fix the type of 

 Hirundo as Hirundo rustica, and that Forster, 3 as the first author to 

 subdivide the group, thereby determined its type. While it is quite 

 true that Schaeffer in 1774 did not in the modern sense fix the type of 

 the genus Hirundo, it is likewise true that the action of Forster in 

 merely applying different generic names to several of the species is 

 equally of no effect. The International Code of Nomenclature pro- 

 vides that in order to make a type designation valid an author 

 must definitely indicate a species as the type. So far as we have 

 been able to ascertain, the first designation according to the speci- 

 fications of the International Code was by Selby in 1825, * who 

 selected Hirundo rustica as the type; and Gray, in 1840, 5 designated 

 the same species. There is thus open, under the rules, no other 

 course than to consider Hirundo rustica the type of Hirundo 

 Linnaeus. 



HYPUROLEPIS JAVANICA ABBOTTI,* new subspecies. 



Sulspecijic characters. — Similar to Hypurolcpis javanica javanica, 7 

 from Java, but larger; forehead, chin, and throat darker; posterior 

 lower parts more grayish (less brownish), and medially much more 

 whitish. 



Description.— Type, adult male, No. 171048, U.S.N.M.; Pulo 

 Manguan, Anamba Islands, September 1, 1899; Dr. W. L. Abbott. 

 Forehead and sinciput bay; rest of upper parts shining metallic 

 dusky bluish green ; rectrices brownish black, their upper surface more 

 or less glossed with metallic deep green, all but the middle pair with 

 a conspicuous subterminal transverse spot of white; wings brownish 

 black, the exposed surface glossed with metallic green like the tail, 

 the lesser wing-coverts edged with the metallic bluish green of the 

 upper parts, and tertials with minute buffy tips; chin and throat 

 between russet and tawny; sides and flanks hair brown, many of. the 

 feathers with paler tips; breast paler brown, the feathers with light 

 tips; middle of abdomen brownish white, the central portion of the 

 feathers mostly pale brownish with dark shaft lines; lower tail- 

 coverts fuscous, the subterminal portions black, the tips buffy; lining 

 of wing fuscous, with minute russet edgings; "iris dark brown; bill 

 and feet black." 



1 Vogel palaarktischen Fauna, vol. 1, pt. 6, June, 1910, pp. 800-801. 



2 Eleni. Ornith., 1774, Classis II, Ordo VII, pi. 40. 



* Synop. Cat. Brit. Birds, 1S17, p. 17. 



* Illustr. Brit. Ornith., pt. 1, 1825, p. xxviii. 

 6 List Genera Birds, 1840, p. 8. 



6 Named for the collector and donor, Dr. W. L. Abbott. 



7 Hirundo javanica Sparrman, Mus. Carlson, fasc. 4, 1789, pi. 100 (Java). 



