136 BRITISH BIRDS. 



while those of Spain are almost exactly like the German 

 C. c. aquaticus, but up to the present the material from 

 the Iberian Peninsula has been inadequate for purposes 

 of comparison. 



Irish Dippers, as I have said before, differ from English 

 and Scotch ones. They have wider black borders to the 

 feathers of the upper-side than C. c. cinclus and C. c. 

 hritannicus, so that the back appears almost uniform 

 black in freshly moulted examples, and the rufous pectoral 

 area is more restricted than in C. c. hritannicus, but 

 wider than in typical C. c. cinclus from Scandinavia. I 

 have been able to compare six Irish Dippers, which were 

 all distinguishable from twenty-three out of twenty-four 

 from Great Britain. Only one, a skin from Tillicoultry^ in 

 Scotland, agreed with the Irish Dippers in the black 

 upper, surface. Adding to my observations Dresser's 

 observation of 1874, I considered that I had sufficient 

 reason to separate this form, and I named it Cinclus 

 cinclus hibernicus on page 790 of my book. 



The Generic Names of our Swallows. 



The nomenclature of the SwaUows has been subjected 

 to most extraordinary treatment, the name of Chelidon 

 Forster, 1817, having been disregarded and Chelidon 

 Boie, 1822, which was based on no better grounds and 

 not diagnosed, accepted — Chelidon Forster being the 

 generic name for the British Swallow, Chelidon Boie 

 that for the House-Martin. But to make things still 

 worse, Riparia Forster (also 1817) has been accepted for 

 the Sand-Martins. It stands to reason that, if one of 

 Forster's names is valid, the other must be equally so, 

 and the case is really very simple ; Linnaeus and subsequent 

 authors called all Swallows Hirundo and included the 

 Swifts, but Forster, in 1817, divided them into Chelidon 

 (rustica), Hirundo (urbica) and Riparia (riparia), each 

 of these genera being monotypic. This nomenclature 

 must be accepted and supersedes all subsequent altera- 

 tions and shiftings of names. 



