«• Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornitholuyy. 255 



16. HiRUNDO GUTTURALIS^ Scop.* 



I use this name for our smaller Eastern form of H. rustica, be- 

 cause I believe it to be the oldest applicable : the true H. javanica, 

 Sparrm.j seupanayana, Gmel., from Java, is, as Prof. Schlegel has 

 shown me, quite a distinct bird. Our species, ranging in summer 

 from Canton to Peking, Mr. Blyth. assures me is identical with 

 specimens procured in winter in Calcutta ; hence I infer that the 

 birds that visit China in spring, and uniformly leave again in 

 autumn, return to hibernate in the warm plains of India. The 

 summer migrations of this species extend into Siberia and 

 Amoorland on the one hand, as we learn from V. Schrenck, and 

 to Japan, as far north as Hakodadi, as we learn from Capt. 

 Blakiston^s collection. In summer it also visits Formosa, but 

 is chiefly confined in its distribution to the S.W. It is by no 

 means so common there as the following species, with which it 

 never seems to keep company during the period of nidification. 

 In its habits, in nest, and colour of eggs, &c., this bird entirely 

 agrees with the European H. i-ustica ; yet in size it is always 

 smaller, and in minor personal features diflFerent. I think it 

 therefore necessary, for the sake of geographical distribution and 

 the laws of migration, not to confound them with each other. 



S . Length 8 in. ; wing 4/^ ; tail 4|, lateral feathers exceeding 

 the rest by 2 inches. Bill brownish black; inside of mouth 

 dark ochre-yellow. Legs and claws deep purplish brown. 



$ . Length 6^9_ i^. . ^ing 4^ ; tail 3^, lateral feathers f^ 

 longer. Claws and legs much lighter than in male. The pectoral 

 band is browner, and the under parts brownish rufescent, instead 

 of white as in the male. The axillaries are, however, darker. 



17. HiRUNDO DAURICA, L. 



H. alpestris, Pall. 



Pallas, with his usual minuteness, has well described this bird 

 and its nesting peculiarities. It is found in the extreme north 

 of China as a summer resident only; but in the south, where the 

 winter climate is more genial, it stays all the year, roaming about 



* I fully agree with most modern naturalists in considering the Swallows 

 as an extreme modification of the MuscicapidcB. It is now too late, how- 

 ever, in this paper, to place them in theii' proper position. — R. S. 



