SYNONYMY AND CHARACTERS OF S. SERRIPENNIS 430 



Stelgidopteryx serripennis, Bd. Kev. AB. 1865, 314 (type of the genus). Coues, Tr. Phila. 

 Acad. 1866, 72 (Fort Whipple, Ariz.). Coues, Pr. Boat. Soc. xii. 1868, 111 (Sooth Caro- 

 lina). Coues, Key, 1872, 114. Merr. Ann. Rep. TJ. S. Geol. Snrv. Terr, for 1872, 1873, 

 113. Ridgw. Bull. Ess. Inst. v. 1873, 181 (Colorado). Ridgw. Ann. Lye. N. Y. x. 1874, 

 370 (Illinois). M err. Am. Nat. viii. 1874, 8, 87. Coues, BNW. 1874, 90. .B. B.&R. 

 NAB. i. 1874, 350, pi. 16, f. 12. Tarr. <& Hensh. Rep. Orn. Specs. 1874, 11. Hensh. ibid. 

 42, 60, 77, 105. Hensh. List B. Ariz. 1875, 157. Hensh. Zool. Expl. W. ICO Merid. 

 1875, 219. Brewst. Ann. Lye. N. Y. xi. 1875, 139 (Virginia, habits). Gentry, Life-Hist. 

 1876, 196. Purdie, Ball. Nutt Club, ii. 1877, 21 (Connecticut). Merr. Trans. Conn. 

 Acad. iv. 1877, 31. Langdon, List B. Cincinnati, 1877, 7 (abundant; nesting in holes 

 in banks like O. riparia). Ridgw. Rep. Surv. 40th Par. iv. 1877, 44& 



Stelgidopterix serripennis, Wheat. Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 1875, 565. 



A closey related, if really different, species is Cotyle fulvipennis, Scl. PZS. 

 1859, 364 (Xalapa) ; Bd. Rev. AB. 1865, 316 ; Salv. PZS. 1870, 184 (Veragua). 



HAB. United States, from Atlantic to Pacific, and probably adjoining 

 British Provinces. British Columbia (Lord). Rare or wanting in North- 

 eastern States (Connecticut, Merriam). South to Guatemala. 



CH. SP. $ 9 Murinus, alls cauddque obscurioribus ; infra 

 dilutior, postice albicam. 



$ 9 : Lustreless mouse-brown or brownish-gray, paler below, gradually 

 whitening posteriorly. Wings and tail darker than the upper parts. 

 Rather larger than the last species. No dark pectoral band contrasting 

 with white. No tuft of feathers at the base of the hind toe. Outer web of 

 outer primary stiffened and converted into a series of little hooks. 



Young : At a very early age, the feathers of the back, rump, and wings are 

 suffused or edged with rich rusty-brown, while the under parts are more or 

 less tinged with a paler shade of the same. The booklets of the wings are 

 only fully developed in adult birds, and are not appreciable at all in young 



OE the Kough- winged Swallow, type of a notable genus and 

 an interesting species in many respects, no adequate 

 biography, reflecting all the information we have gradually 

 acquired, has yet appeared 5 though various original contribu-. 

 tions to such history, as those furnished by Audubon, Brewer, 

 Van Fleet, and others, have supplied the requisite material. 

 Our Bough-wing was not the first- discovered representative of 

 this curious group, superficially so similar to Cotyle, yet quite 

 distinct; for, many years before Audubon's discovery of serri- 

 pennis, Vieillot named a Hirundo rujicollis, or H. flavigastra, 

 an inhabitant of South America, subsequently determined to 

 be a Stelgidopteryx. In later times, several additional species 

 have been described ; the Cotyle fulvipennis of Sclater, 1859, 

 the C. uropygialis of Lawrence, 1803, and the S. fulvigula of 

 Biiird, 1865, all of which inhabit Middle America, and some of 

 which are probably not very distinct species. 



