5. HIRUNDO. 143 



the back ; a broad frontal band of brick-red ; lores black, as also 

 the feathers round the eye ; ear-coverts brick-red like the sides of 

 the face, but blue along the upper edge ; cheeks, throat, and fore 

 neck brick-red ; sides of the neck dull steel-blue ; breast dull ashy- 

 brownish, with dusky shaft-streaks, the sides of the upper breast 

 with a dull blue patch like the sides of the neck ; abdomen a little 

 paler ashy ; sides of the body and flanks dull smoky brown ; thighs 

 smoky brown, tipped with ashy ; under tail-coverts smoky brown, 

 margined conspicuously with rufous, before which is a bluish-black 

 shade, broader on the longer tail-feathers and producing there a 

 strongly marked appearance ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 smoky brown with slight tips of rufous ; quills below dusky brown, 

 inner edges rather more smoky brown. Total length o'l inches, 

 culmeu 0-4, wing 4-15, tail 2-15, tarsus 0-35. 



06s. Specimens from Travancore are much duller underneath than 

 any other birds yet examined, and those from South-eastern New 

 Guinea and Torres Straits are the palest below, being white on the 

 centre of the abdomen. At first sight they would appear to be a dif- 

 ferent race, but light-bellied examples are found in Eomeo and other 

 localities, though they are never so white on the belly as specimens 

 from the Astrolabe Mountains or Torres Straits. 



Hah. Southern India and Ceylon ; Malayan peninsula, Java, 

 Sumatra, Borneo, Southern Philippine Islands, Moluccas ; New 

 Guinea and adjacent islands, as well as the islands in Torres Straits. 

 Eeplaced by H. taitensis in the Solomon Islands and New Britain. 



