SUB-GENUS lillia, (boie, 1859.) 259 



On tins doubtful, and perhaps mythical, male and a descrip- 

 tion of a female, probably of capensis, as a basis, and avowedly 

 accepting capemis of Ginelin as identical, Temminck described 

 as the male the bird now known as rufitla. The species is, 

 therefore, a composite one, and the name ought possibly 

 to be suppressed and the species renamed after Temminck, 

 L. Temmincki. 



Temminek's description of the male is as follows: — "On the 

 top of the head a large bluish black cap, with polished steel 

 reflexions; nape, cheeks, sinciput and little superciliary 

 streak, rusty red ; hinder part of ueck, mantle and tail-coverts, 

 the bluish black of polished steel ; rump bright red, turning 

 to whitish isabelline towards the bases of the tail-feathers ; 

 lower parts of a rufous isabelline, each feather with a narrow 

 brown streak along the shaft ; wings and tail black, the latter 

 deeply forked, and the lateral feathers long and subulate ; 

 bill, iris, and feet, black : length 7*67. " 



Later he became aware of the muddle he had got into 

 with this species, and in the Faun. Jap. (34, 1850) he and 

 Schlegel remark : — 



"The species discovered in Sicily by Mr. Oantraine, and 

 which has likewise been observed in the south of France, 

 may bear the title of Hirundo rufula, see Temminck, Manual 

 III., 298, and Schlegel, Revue Critique, p. XVIII and 41. It is 

 of the same size as the Cape species, but has a smaller and 

 feebler bill ; the top of the head is an uniform blue black; the 

 tail has no white band; the terminal half of the lower tail- 

 coverts are black ; the lower surface is a pretty shade of 

 yellowish rusty and the striae are very fine and little apparent. •" 



The characteristics of this species as compared with alpestris 

 clearly are — first, that it usually has no white on the inner webs 

 of the outer tail-feathers ; second, that the rump instead of being 

 uniform pales towards the tail-feathers to buffy white ; third, 

 that the striae on the lower surface are very fine and little 

 apparent. 



What bird Bree figures (B. of E. n. o. i. G. B. III., 174), 

 length, 7 iuches (?) ; wing, 4"8, with a conspicuous white spot 

 on the inner webs of the outer tail-feathers, I cannot guess ; 

 certainly, if the dimensions are correctly stated not an adult 

 rufula. In all my specimens of this species, the length, I 

 judge, must have exceeded or been close upon 8 inches, and the 

 wings exceed 5, and Naumaun (Vog. Deutschl. Suppl. XIII., 

 210) gives far larger dimensions. " Length, 8"75 ; wing, 5'5 ; 

 tail, 542 ; fork, 3 - 3 ; the first quill the longest, the second 0*09 

 shorter and each of the rest 037 shorter than the preceding 

 one/' 



