436 Rev. H. B. Tristram on African Birds. 



in my series I find specimens varying from a thickly-spotted 

 gorget to one almost plain. 



Mr. Gurney has kindly been examining my African birds 

 with me; and his valuable assistance enables me to make some 

 rectifications in synonymy, and to extend the boundaries of the 

 range of some species. 



The range of Phasmoptynx capensis must now be extended to 

 Asia, for it has recently been procured by Mr. Wyatt on Mount 

 Sinai in young plumage. Its range is thus from the Cape to 

 Spain and Arabia. 



Hirundo albigularis, Strickl. (Cent. Orn. 1849, p. 17, pi. xv.), 

 with which H. albigula, Bp., and H. rufifrons, Less. (no. 85, La- 

 yard, B. S. Afr.), are synonymous, must probably be put down 

 as a synonym of H. ruffrons, Yieill. (no. 80, Layard), which, 

 however, has been incorrectly described by Stephens as having a 

 black throat and breast. This is the only difference in the 

 descriptions, and seems to have arisen from a mistake of Le 

 Vaillant's. Specimens from Messrs. Layard, Andersson, and 

 Ayres are all identical ; and no one appears ever to have seen 

 the Swallow with a black throat. 



There have been two species confounded under the names of 

 Cotijle palustris, Steph. { = Hirundu paludicola, Vieill. = C. palu- 

 dibula, Riipp.) — one from the north, the other from the south of 

 Africa. The northern bird, which I have obtained by the Dead 

 Sea, and received from Egypt and Abyssinia, is perfectly distinct 

 from the southern, having, like C. rupesfris and C.fuligula, a 

 large white spot on the inner web of each of the rectrices, 

 except the outer and middle covering pairs. It is larger 

 than the southern bird — which has no white spots on the 

 rectrices, and has also the throat and breast darker brown, 

 gradually blending into pure white on the abdomen, while the 

 northern bird has the whole under surface of a uniform dirty 

 white colour. 



It is curious that the distinction has not been before noted. 

 I only discovered it on receiving specimens of the South-African 

 bird. As the original description undoubtedly refers to the 

 South-African species, I should propose, in preference to taking 

 a new name for the northern species, to assign to it Riippell^s 



