HIRUNDO. 429 



393. HIRUNDO STRIOLATA (Boie). 

 MOSQUE SWALLOW. 



Cecropis striolata BOIE, Isis (1844), 174. 



Hirundo striolata SHARPE, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1885), 10, 161; Hand- 

 List (1901), 3, 196; WHITEHEAD, Ibis (1899), 236 (migration in 

 northern Luzon); MCGREGOR and WORCESTER, Hand-List (1906), 70; 

 MCGREGOR, Phil. Journ. Sci. (1907), 2, sec. A, 326 (nesting habits). 



Batan (McGregor); Bohol (McGregor)-, Calayan (McGregor); Camiguin N. 

 (McGregor) ; Cebu (McGregor); Luzon (Whitehead) ; Masbate (Bourns & Wor- 

 cester); Mindoro (Porter). Formosa, southern China, Burmese provinces, Java, 

 Assam, Flores, Cachar. 



Adult (sexes similar). Above, except rump, dark steel-blue; loral 

 feathers black with gray bases; a more or less triangular patch above 

 and behind ear-coverts chestnut, streaked with black, continued forward 

 over eye and slightly connected across occiput by fine lines of chestnut; 

 feathers of neck and upper back largely white basally, this showing as 

 white lines; under tail-coverts black; remainder of under parts including 

 axillars and wing-lining white, or very pale fawn, with conspicuous 

 blackish shaft-lines producing a very striking appearance; rump rusty 

 chestnut with blackish shaft-lines; tail-coverts, secondaries, and second- 

 ary-coverts black, slightly glossed with blue; alula, primary-coverts, pri- 

 maries, and rectrices black, slightly glossed with dark green. Bill black ; 

 legs and nails brown. Length, 190 to 195. A male from Cebu meas- 

 ures: Wing, 123; tail, 102; depth of fork, 55; bill from nostril, 6; 

 tarsus, 14. .A female from Cebu, wing, 120; tail, 93; depth of fork, 46; 

 bill from nostril, 6; tarsus, 14. 



Young. General color pattern as in the adult, but head and back less 

 strongly glossed with blue; chestnut on head and rump much lighter; 

 wings and tail dark brown instead of black, and inner secondaries tipped 

 with white; lower parts heavily washed with fawn, and shaft-stripes 

 shorter, browner, and less sharply defined, very faint or altogether 

 wanting on abdomen and under tail-coverts; axillars, wing-lining, and 

 flanks strongly washed with fawn, shaft-lines faint or wanting. 



If the Philippine representatives of the mosque swallow be included 

 with H. striolata, as they must be at present, this species has a consider- 

 able range but it appears to be very local in occurrence. It may be found 

 in numbers in one part of an island and be altogether absent a short 

 distance away. It often appears in large flocks and may disappear 

 within a few hours. I found it nesting in Bohol Island in May and 

 in the Island of Batan during June. The nest is a bottle-shaped struc- 

 ture of mud, plastered to a wall in a cave or to a beam beneath a building. 

 The eggs are pure white; three from Bohol measure: 22.6 by 14.7; 22.3 

 by 14.2; 22.8 by 14.7. 

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