256 REMARKS OX SOME SPECIES Or THE 



upper tail-coverts j (which are black or, in the young, dusky) 

 are uniform. 



Amongst my supposed erythropygia, I found two specimens 

 in which the rump, &c, distinctly paled to the tail, and were 

 distinctly black shafted, but the wings 4 - 6—4 - 65 showed at 

 once that they were young birds of one of the larger species 

 and not erythropygia at all. 



"With due attention to the dimensions noted, (I have 

 only given those that are useful for discriminating our 

 species) and the remarks above recorded, there ought to be 

 no difficulty in separating erythropygia at all times. 



This disposes of one of our species and one of the eight above 

 enumerated. 



The so-called L. daurica, Lin., must, I apprehend, stand as 

 alpestris, Pall. The species is not included in the Xlltk 

 Ed., Sys. Nat., but it is mentioned by Linuseus in the Mantissa, 

 dating' I believe 1771, (p. 528), and 'in the Act. Stockh., 1769. 

 I have never seen these, but I gather from Pallas, Schlegel, 

 and others that Linnseus did not then confer any specific title 

 but merely designated the species, as " H. coerulea, subtus 

 alba temporibus uropygioque ferrugineis." It was on this 

 and on Pallas's alpestris and Latham's Daurian Swallow, that 

 Gin. S. N., I., 1024(1788) founded his daurica. But Pallas 

 had already (1776j in his Voyages (II. App. &c, 709, No. 9. 

 orig. Ed. In the French translation by Gauthier de la 

 Peyronie, most commonly met with, it is III. Ap. 464, No. 11) 

 fully described the species as alpestris, and by that name it 

 should, I suppose, stand. 



This is Pallas' description, as finally revised in his Zoog. 

 Boss. As. I., 534, 1810. 



" Size exceeding that of H. rustica, and the bill slightly 

 wider; the mouth yellowish within, the tongue triangular, 

 yellow, bifid ; the crown, the middle of the back, the basal 

 portion of the wings, and the (upper) tail-coverts, steely black; 

 the triangular space on either side, between the eyes and nape, 

 occupying the temples, ferruginous, these spaces often meeting 

 on the nape; ears ashy ; rump, almost to the middle of the back, 

 ferruginous ; beneath the body lutescent or dingy white, lineally 

 striated with black shafts; lower tail-coverts, with the points 

 black with a bluish lustre; wings below yellowish white with 

 dusky shafts; quills (i. <?., primaries and secondaries) 17, from 

 the 10th to the 15th emarginate at the tips so as to be heart- 

 shaped there ;* tail shining black, extremely forked;, the four 

 middle feathers nearly equal, the outer on each side much the 



This peculiarity is more or less common to the whole group. 



