worn-out plumage of tlie Svrallow as he saw it in Katal : — " Our Swallow, as probably every 

 other species of Hirundinida?, only moults once in the year. After having migrated six or 

 seven thousand miles to their bi'eeding-grounds, spent nearly six months in the stormy summer 

 of Northern Europe, again migrated six or seven thousand miles back to their winter-quarters, 

 and spent another six months during the rainy season of Natal, it is a wonder that the poor 

 bii'ds have any feathers left. Some of those which I shot had been in a lamentable condition ; 

 the old feathers that still remained had faded to a rusty brown and were worn to shreds. The 

 plumage of the young birds, thougji they had only run the gauntlet of one journey and one 

 summer, is so much more tender than that of adults, that they were in the worst condition ; the 

 old feathers were no better than rusty rags." 



In the ' Catalogue of Birds,' Dr. Sharpe has expressed his views with regard to Hirundo rustica and 

 the allied species, and during the eight years which have elapsed since tlic issue of that work, 

 we find no reason to modify the conclusions therein expressed. Since the year wlien the tenth 

 volume of the ' Catalogue ' was published, the British Museum has, through the generosity of 

 Mr. Allan Hume, [Messrs. Osbert Salvin and F. D. Godman, and ]\Iajor Wardlaw Ramsay, 

 become the possessor of the great Hume, Salvin-Godman, and Tweeddalc collections, so that the 

 material which we have been able to compare has been increased nearly tenfold, and yet we 

 adhere in the main to the conclusions which the ' Catalogue ' professes. 



Taking, therefore, H. rustica as the dominant species, it is evident from the series in the 

 British Museum that the intermediate gradation between that species and its near allies is 

 complete, and the treatment of //. (jutturalis, H. saviynii, H. vnjtlirogadra, and //. lytleri as 

 subspecies of H. rustica is fully justified. Thus between H. rustica and H. (jutturaUs every kind 

 of intermediate specimen can be fotmd, and the purely western birds are often as intermediate as 

 those found in the far East. In tlie Swallows, in fact, we see a repetition of the curious pheno- 

 menon, recorded by Dr. Sliarpe, with regard to the Starlings, Stunius vuh/aris and .S'. menzl/icri 

 (Cat. B. xiii. p. 29), in which the strain of the eastern bird has strongly impregnated the western 

 and typical form, so that two thoroughly distinct species possess an intermediate link whicli 

 lessens the status of both of them. Here we have a justification of the rccoguizablej but clumsy, 

 American system of trinomial names to express a certain fact in nature. 



Many ornithologists have recorded the occurrence of //. savi;/iili in various cotmtrics of 

 Europe. This is a mistake. H. savignii is a resident form of H. rustica, afiparently confineil to 

 Egypt. Having ourselves seen the birds in that country, we can confidently assert tliat there is 

 no certainty of distinguishing //. sariffuii on the wing from a spring i)lumaged sp(M'inu'n ot 

 H. rustica, unless the eye be accustomed to the dark uiuler surface ol' the l"^gyptian bird. 'I'hc 

 supposed occurrence of the Egyptian Swallow in various countries of llurope, inchiding JCngland, 

 is Ijascd on error of observation, and the biixl wliich does duty for //. sarii/iiii in tiiese records, 

 and is spoken of liy many of our colleagues as //. sarii//iii or //. jKu/orum, is notliiug l>ul ilie 

 ordinary H. rustica in beautiful spring jduniagc. AVe owe to tlu' kindness ol an old Iriend, 

 Mr. Henry ^Vhitely, of AVoohvich, a specimen shot on the I'lunisiead Marshes in .M:iy, which 

 is by far the nearest api)roach to //. sarir/itii of any Swallow which we liavc yet .-ecu from (I real 

 Britain. Dr. Giglioli lias endorseil our o|)ini()n with rr-anl In Italian and Sicilian rec(M-ds. 



Everytiiing seems to prove that it is only the very old birds that have the rnreseent breast in 

 spring, for we have before us several males killed in spring-time, wiiirli are very jiale uudernealli 

 and have perfectly dclincd black collars on tlirir throats, \\hcnas in the ruluus-hreasted specimens 

 the centre of the black collar has rul'ous bars which break the continuity of the black collar, the 



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