286 MR. R.B. SHARPE ON ETHIOPIAN HIRUNDINID&. [May 12, 
3. On the Hirundinide of the Ethiopian Region. 
By R. B. Suarez, F.L.S., Libr. Z.8., &e. 
I propose in the present paper to give an outline of the African 
Swallows; and as I possess a very good series of specimens in my 
private collection, I am induced to hope that these notes may be 
of some service to the future student of these difficult birds. So 
slight is at present our knowledge of the different species of Swallows 
that I cannot expect the present attempt to be by any means perfect, 
especially as there still remain some few species, of which I have 
been unable to examine specimens. Nevertheless I venture to hope 
that the labour bestowed upon it will in some small measure con- 
duce to the benefit of ornithological science, and that it may prove 
the groundwork on which some more experienced writer may build 
a surer structure. I have endeavoured to work out the subject in 
the manner which Messrs. Sclater and Salvin have pursued in 
their well-known ‘‘ Synopsis of the American Rallide’’ *. A more 
useful contribution to ornithology has, in my opinion, never been 
published ; and were every essay to be prepared in the same accurate 
and careful manner, the student would have little difficulty in the 
determination of those species at present so puzzling. 
It is by no means an easy task to define clearly tangible characters 
by which the various genera of the Hirundinide may at once be 
distinguished. The most efficient treatment of their classification 
that | have met with is the arrangement proposed by Professor 
Baird in his ‘ Review of American Birds;’ but from his having 
chiefly American Swallows to deal with, his conclusions are not 
always satisfactory when such genera as are strongly represented in 
the Old World have to be considered. I shall, however, more than 
once have to express my indebtedness to his painstaking exposition 
of the family Hirundinide, throughout the course of the present 
aper. 
e It is very curious to note the close affinity of some of the forms 
found in the African continent with those found in the Nearctic, and 
more especially the Neotropical, region. As arule the affinities of 
Africa are closer to South America; but with the Swallows the op- 
posite is the case, and the balance of relationship is in favour of North 
America, especially in the instance where a South-African species, 
Petrochelidon spilodera, is so closely allied to the North-American 
P. lunifrons, as at first to have been mistaken for it. As in the 
New World, so in Africa a group of rough-winged Swallows is found; 
and so different in form are these from all the other Hirundinide 
that it is proposed to separate them as a separate subfamily, Psali- 
doprocnine, to include the African genus Psalidoprocne and the 
American genus Stelgidopteryz. 
Hitherto all authors on African ornithology have included among 
the Hirundinide one or more species of Adticora; but this genus, I 
* P.Z 8. 1868, p. 442. 
