220 HIRUNDINID^E. 



and Afzclius in 1793, saw the Swallow on the river Senegal 

 and at Sierra Leone in that period of the year Avhen it is 

 absent from Europe. Mr. Tudsbury, of Chesterfield, who 

 resided at Sierra Leone and Rio Nunez from 1821 to 1828, 

 says, the Swallow, the Martin, and the Swift, are seen all the 

 year in the neighbourhood of these two places ; but that they 

 are less numerous in the rainy season from June to Septem- 

 ber. — Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 449. To this I may add, 

 that Mr. George Don told me he saw the S^vallow, the Mar- 

 tin, and the Swift, at the Island of St. Thomas, on the equa- 

 tor, in the months of January and February in 1822. 



In the adult male the beak is black, the ridge elevated, the 

 gape wide; irides hazel; forehead chestnut; head, neck, back, 

 wing-coverts, tertials, rump, and upper tail-coverts, shining 

 steel blue ; primary and secondary quill-feathers dull black ; 

 tail very much forked, the outer feather on each side as long 

 again as the others, and nearly black, with an elongated patch 

 of white on the inner web, commencing near the base, and 

 terminating a little short of the end of the second feather, 

 which, with the three tail-feathers next in succession, have 

 each a rounded white patch on the inner web, and each also 

 decrease in length ; the two middle tail-feathers are the 

 shortest of the whole, also dull black, and have no white on 

 cither web. The chin and throat are chestnut, below that a 

 bluish black band which terminates in a straight line across a 

 little below the bend of the wing ; breast, under Aving-coverts, 

 belly, and under tail-coverts, buffy white ; legs and toes 

 slender and black ; claws sharp and black. 



Whole length eight inches and a half, of which the very 

 elongated outside tail-feathers measure nearly five inches ; 

 the wings long and pointed, reaching beyond the end of the 

 second tail-feather ; from the carpal joint to the end of the 

 wing five inches ; the first and second quill-feathers nearly 

 equal in length, but the first rather the longer of the two. 



