CHERRIE: ORNITHOLOGY OF THE ORINOCO REGION. l6l 



a sign of the dusky or blackish spot at the tip of the longer under 

 tail-coverts while in the other there is a small dusky spot near the tip 

 of one web only. The outer web of the outer primaries of these 

 juvenile birds is wider than in adults and the recurved tips to the 

 barbs are scarcely evident. The plumage above resembles that of 

 the adults, but the feathers of the back are narrowly edged with buff. 

 The pale rufous or buffy tips to the greater wing-coverts form a 

 decided band on the wing, and there are broad tips and edgings to the 

 tertials. Below, the breast and sides are washed with pale rufous, 

 paler than that on the throat. The centre of the white belly is 

 washed with pale primrose yellow. An adult male taken at Las 

 Barrancas seems to approach ruHcollis ruHcollis in the less evident paler 

 rump and in the somewhat deeper rufous of the throat. 



DlPLOCHELIDON^ MELANOEEUCA (Wied). 



Hirundo melanoleuca Wied, Reise. Bras. I. 1820. p. 342 

 Attic ora melanoleuca Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 15. 



Common along the middle stretches of the river and rarely seen 

 far from the river bank. 



In life the eye is blackish ; bill and feet black. 



I found this species breeding at Caicara during February and 

 March, 1898. The nests were placed far back in crevices between 

 the rocks of a long low rocky peninsula which extends far out into 

 the river, and was less than 2 m. above the surface of the river at 

 that time. During the rainy season it would be many feet sub- 

 merged. The nests were slight affairs made up of a small quantity 

 of soft dead grasses lined with soft feathers. The eggs are a delicate 

 pure white. 



This species played an important part in an interesting spectacle 

 that I witnessed, on the evening of the 19th of July, 1898, half way 

 between Caicara and Altagracia. I had made my canoe fast in a tree 

 top, above one of the many submerged islands that are so common in 

 the Orinoco, at that season of the year. As a storm w^as gathering 

 and it was near sun-down, we were too far from either shore to 

 attempt to reach solid ground for a camp. But the bird drama I wit- 

 nessed that evening amply repaid me for the night spent in the tree 

 tops. Just before darkness I noted immense numbers of Progne chaly- 



Wiplochelidon, Ridgway, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVI. 1903. p. 106. (Type Hirundo melanoleuca 

 Wied.) 



