SWALLOW. 253 



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 either 

 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 

 wing-coverts, belly, and under tail-coverts, bufly 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. 



The female has a smaller chestnut-coloured spot on the 

 forehead ; the dark band across the breast is narrower ; 

 the under surface of the body is less tinged with buff; 

 the upper part of the body not so fine in colour, and the 

 outside tail-feathers are shorter. 



The young of the year have no chestnut colour on the 

 forehead ; the throat is merely tinged with rufous ; the 

 band across the throat is but faintly indicated ; the first 

 set of tail-feathers are nearly square at the end, without 

 white spots on the webs. The long tail-feathers are not 

 acquired till the first moult. 



