WHITE-RUMPED SWIFT 305 



grounds, but when Pallas' great work on the zoology of Asiatic Russia 

 appeared in 1811, he described a variety of the common swift under 

 the name of ^^Hirundo apu.s^ var. B. leucopyga^'' which was subse- 

 quently proved to be the same species that Latham had described 

 ten years previously. John Gould later named it Cypselus australis, 

 and Jardine and Selby introduced a fourth name, C. vittatus^ but 

 finally it was recognized that Latham's name had priority, and it 

 has been generally accepted ever since. 



The Himalayan bird, M. pacificus leuconyw, was first described by 

 Blyth in 1845. It is considerably smaller than the typical race and 

 the feet are flesh-colored, instead of blackish, but it is treated as a 

 subspecies of M. pcbciflcus in the second edition of "The Fauna of 

 British India." A third form, M. paciflcus cooki, was described in 

 1918 from the northern Shan States in Burma by the late Maj. H. H. 

 Harington. This is also a small race, with black feet and dark shaft 

 stripes to the feathers of the chin and with dark mantle. More re- 

 cently Domaniewski has suggested the separation of the northern 

 birds into three more races — the typical form {M. p. pacijicus) from 

 Vladivostok; the Japanese race {M. p. kurodae)^ said to be much 

 darker; and the Kamchatkan bird {M. p. hamtscliaticus) ^ from 

 Petropaulovsk. It may prove to be necessary to accept some of these 

 new forms, but without an adequate series of skins for comparison 

 it seems at present desirable to let the matter remain as it is and 

 to treat the Japanese, Chinese, and Siberian birds under one heading. 



Spring. — In Japan and eastern Asia this species is a summer resi- 

 dent. As there is some doubt with regard to the Burmese and Hima- 

 layan subspecies as to whether they are partially migratory or not, 

 it is best to confine our attention to the dates of arrival in the countries 

 north of India and the Malay Peninsula. J. D. D. La Touche (1931) , 

 writing on the birds of eastern China, gives its distribution as follows : 

 "China Coast, Shaweishan Is. (migrant) . Islands off Fohkien coast. 

 Shantung coast and Is. (summer). Chihli (summer and migrant). 

 Yangtse Valley to Szechuen (summer and migrant) ." He does not, 

 however, give any data as to the time of arrival of the migrants 

 from Australia, but the gap can be partially filled from other sources. 

 The same writer, in an article on spring migration at Chinwangtao, 

 on the coast of Chihli, quotes as the earliest date April 14 (2), 1913. 

 Another was obtained in Fohkien on April 22. The next date is May 

 9, 1913, when two more were seen, and flocks were observed subse- 

 quently in May and June, the latter probably merely visits from 

 adjoining breeding places. There are, moreover, earlier dates of 

 specimens obtained, for there is a specimen in the Hume collection 

 (British Museum) from Takow, China, dated March 22, obtained 

 by Swinhoe, and he also states (1870) that he secured a specimen from 



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