926 



SWALLOW 



the Aphriza virgata of ornithology, a peculiar Limicoline form 

 found on the Pacific coast of America from Alaska to Chili (Gay, 

 Fauna Chilena, p. 408). It was referred to the genus Tringa by 

 Latham, who in 1785 (Gea. Synops. iii. jx 180) described a specimen 

 brought from Sandwich Sound (most likely by the survivors of 

 Cook's last voyage), but Avas lost sight of for many years until 

 Townsend obtained a single example, in November 1836, at the 

 mouth of the Columbia Eiver, and sent it to Audubon, who re- 

 described the species as new, founding thereon a new genus Aphriza. 

 It has since been frequently observed, but the most recent explorers 

 of north-western America have failed to find its breeding-grounds, 

 which are probably, as the natives told Mr. Nelson (Rep. A'! H. Coll. 

 Alaska, iii. p. 128), though he mistrusted them, on the bare moun- 

 tains of the interior ; and little is known of its habits, except that 

 it frequents the sea-shore, seeking its food in the surf, undeterred 

 by the spray of the breaking waves, and hence it has received both 

 its scientific (dc^pbs, foam, (dw, I live) and English names. The 

 bird is about as large as a Knot, and not unlike one in its winter- 

 dress, though much darker in colour above, with a conspicuous 

 white bar on the wings and a white -rump, and it undergoes little 

 if an}'' seasonal change. Its osteology, as examined by the present 

 writer (Journ. Mmphol. 1888, pp. 311-340, pi. xxv.), shews that its 

 affinity is rather to the smaller Sandpipers than to the Plovers, 

 and still less than to the Turnstones or Oyster-catchers, amonc 

 which it has been generally placed, and therefore it is proposed to 

 be regarded as in itself forming a separate Family Aphrizidx. 



R. W. Shufeldt. 



SWALLOW (A.-S. Sivalewe, Icel. Smla, Dutch Zwalutv, Germ. 

 Schwalhe), the bird Avhich of all others is recognized as the harbinger 



of summer in the northern hemisphere ; for, 

 though some differences, varying according 

 to the 'meridian, are usually presented by 

 the birds which have their home in Europe, 

 in northern Asia and in North America 

 resjiectively, it is difficult to allow to them a 

 specific value ; and consequently a zoologist 

 of wide views, while not overlooking this 

 local variation, will regard the Swallow of 

 all these tracts as forming a single species, 

 the Hirundo rustica of Linnaeus.^ Returnine, 

 usually already paired, to its summer-haunts, 



^ It has been already noticed that recent American authors would apply to 

 the Swallow the generic term of Chdidon, generally accepted for the House- 

 Martin (p. 536), and to the latter Hinnulo. Herein they are technically 

 incorrect, for one of the tirst principles of zoological nomenclature has always 



Swallow. (After Swainson.) 



