96 CBAG SWALLOW. 



CHELIDONES. 



Famili/ HIRUNDINIDjE. fBotiaparteJ 



Genus Hirundo. f Linnceus.J 



CEAG SWALLOW. 



Hirundo rupestris. 



Hirimdo rupestris, Scopoli; 1768. 



" Montana et rupestris, Gmelin; 1788. 



Cotyle rupestris, BoiE. Bonaparte. 



Ptyonoprogne rupestris, Bonaparte. 



Hirondelle de roc her, Of the French. 



Felsenschwalbe, Of the Germans., 



Rondine montana, Savi. 



Specific Characters. — Upper parts ash grey, more or less dark according to 

 age; primaries dark smoky brown; tail dark brown, the two upper and 

 two most external tail feathers unicolorous; all the others having a large 

 round white spot on the inner web. Length from tip of beak to end of 

 long wings when closed six inches and a half; from carpus to tip five 

 inches; tarsus five lines; beak seven lines; tail two inches and a half. 



The Crag Swallow inhabits Sicily, Sardinia, the Alps and Pyrenees, 

 the north of Africa, and the eastern parts of Asia. It is also found in 

 the Apennines, and in Tuscany, in Greece, and the Ionian Islands, and 

 I liave specimens from Malta, sent me by my friend Dr. Leith Adams. 

 We have also records of its appearance in Egypt and the rocks 

 bordering the ChifFa, in Algeria. In India, Dr. Leith Adams informs 

 me that it is generally distributed over the Nilghiris Mountains, in 

 Madras, and on certain parts of the Western Himalayas. In the Epirus 

 we are informed by Lord Lilford, (Ibis, vol. ii., p. 234,) it is common 

 and resident, ''haunting the high and precipitous mountains of the 



