ADDENDUM. 



ON THE VARIETIES OF THE SWALLOW. 



[Omitted in its proper place in the Text.] 



IT is well known that birds, like other animals, are 

 subject to variations in colour. Sparrows have been 

 found quite white, bulfinches black, &c. : the most com- 

 mon variety of all, however, is white. Many birds regu- 

 larly change their plumage in winter, and some are more 

 subject to occasional varieties than others. 



The swallow tribes more rarely vary than perhaps 

 many other kinds of birds : however, swallows have been 

 found white, and otherwise altered in their plumage. 

 Brisson mentions a white variety of the hirundo rustica* : 

 and Lathan mentions having seen one white, with a 

 reddish chin. The same author notices white swallows 

 in many Chinese drawings. 



A variety of the hirundo urbica was brought from 

 North America to Sir Joseph Banks, which differed from 

 the common martin, in having the upper parts dusky 

 instead of black. Of the hirundines ambrosiaca, bor- 

 bonica fonericana pelasgica, some varieties are men- 

 tionedt- Finally, in swallows in general there is some 

 variation in the colour, the under parts being more or less 

 white or yellowish, according to age, sex, &c. 



* Bris. Ornithol. ii. 489. 



f Latt. Ornithol. Index, 579, 581, &c. 



