of the Genus Collocalia. 127 
as if there were one on each ; and the same conclusion is exempli- 
fied by the characters promulgated in the ‘Systema Nature,’ viz. 
“yectricibus omnibus macula alba notatis;” while in every one 
of the known species of Collocalia which have white spots on the 
tail-feathers, they exist only on the /ateral feathers, the central 
feathers being without any sign of them. We may therefore 
safely conclude that the supposed ‘long-lost bird” which was 
laid before the Zoological Society was not in reality the Hirundo 
esculenta of Linnzeus. 
On the other hand, I may remark that Brisson in 1760 gave 
a description and figure of a bird (from a drawing of M. Poivre) 
that has been considered by some writers equally to be the 
Hirundo esculenta of Linnzus. In this figure ail the tail-feathers 
are spotted (at the top) with white, thus agreeing with that 
author’s characters. But Brisson’s description and figure could 
not have been the one referred to, as it was not published until 
two years after the 10th edition of the ‘ Systema Nature’ had ap- 
peared. It was in the 12th edition, which appeared in 1766, that 
Linneus first referred to Brisson’s work. Yet we find Thunberg 
in 1772, Latham in 1783 and 1823, Boie in 1844, and other 
authors regarding Brisson’s description and figure as the typical 
representation of the Linnean species. Latham, however, notices 
that the figure in Brisson “ represents the ends of wings reaching 
but a little further than the rump ;” and we also find that the 
late Mr. Strickland considered this figure “to belong to some 
other family than the Swifts or Swallows, or to be grossly inaccu- 
rate;” and lately Mr. Wallace has pronounced decidedly “that the 
figure is not a Collocalia at all, not even a Swift or a Swallow.” 
In 1855 the late Prince Bonaparte applied the specific name 
of esculenta to the bird obtained at Timor and the more remote 
oceanic islands; while in 1857 Bernstein, in an interesting 
anatomical paper on Collocalia, says of C. esculenta et C. nidifica 
(=fuciphaga) “op Java gevonden worden.” We may suppose, I 
think, from this remark, that he refers the first name to the 
species called C. Linchi by the late Dr. Horsfield. 
After the various opinions expressed, I may still venture to con- 
sider the Hirundo esculenta of Linneeus to be enveloped in much 
doubt as to its typical representative among the known species 
of Collocalia; and therefore I think myself justified in not 
employing this name (first used by Osbeck) for any of the species 
noticed in this synopsis, and right in bestowing the new name 
hypoleuca on one of the species, which bird, or even the other 
allied examples, cannot certainly be reconciled with any of the 
descriptions published by the older authors. 
I may observe before closing these remarks, that the name of 
esculenta has been changed by Streubel into that of salangana, 
