SWALLOW. 171 
HIRUNDO RUSTICA. 
SWALLOW. 
(Piate 17.) 
Tlirundo domestica, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 486 (1760). 
Hirundo rustica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 343 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
Gmelin, Scopoh, Latham, Bonaparte, Temminck, Naumann, Degland & Gerbe, 
Newton, Dresser, &c. 
Cecropis rustica (Linn.), Bove, Isis, 1826, p. 971. 
The Barn-Swallow, one of the best known and most familiar of our 
native birds, 1s generally distributed throughout the United Kingdom, in- 
cluding the Channel Islands. It is almost as common in Scotland as in 
England, but is said not to breed on the Outer Hebrides, although seen 
there every year. It is a regular summer visitor to Shetland, but the 
instances of its breeding there are rare. In Ireland the Swallow is quite 
as common and widely distributed as in England; it is a rare straggler to 
Iceland ; and Capt. Feilden states that in the Faroes considerable numbers 
appear in May, but are never known to nest there. 
The Barn-Swallow, in one of its forms, is found throughout the Pale- 
arctic and Nearctic Regions. The typical form breeds in Scandinavia up 
to lat. 68°; Finsch obtained it in West Siberia as far north as lat. 65°; 
Middendorff states that it occasionally occurs in lat. 63°, on the Yenesay ; 
and I shot a solitary example in lat. 664° in the same valley. North of 
the Desert of Sahara it isa summer migrant; but, according to Canon 
Tristram, occasionally winters in the oases. Throughout Africa south of 
the Desert it appears to be only a winter visitor. In Asia it breeds in 
Asia Minor, Persia, Afghanistan, Gilgit, Turkestan, and West Siberia as 
far east as Krasnoyarsk, and winters in Scinde and West India. In the 
valley of the Yenesay it meets and apparently interbreeds with H. rustica, 
var. gutturalis, which differs in being slightly smaller and in having the 
dark pectoral band interrupted in the middle by the chestnut of the throat. 
This form breeds throughout Mongolia, the Himalayas, China, and Japan, 
and winters in India and Burma. In East Siberia, ranging as far west as 
Lake Baikal, and eastwards across Behring’s Straits and throughout the 
Nearctic Region as far south as the plateaux of Mexico, H. rustica, var. 
horreorum, breeds. The East-Siberian birds winter in Burma, where they 
have been re-christened H. tytleri ; but the Mexican Swallows are said to be 
resident, whilst those breeding in North America are said to migrate to 
