4 



An awkward piece of tangled synonymy lias occurred with regard to tlie Kamt- 

 schatkan Swallows, which has been unravelled by Dr. Stejneger, in his " Results of 

 Ornithological Explorations in the Commander Islands and in Kamtschatka " (Bull. U. S. 

 Nat. Mus. no. 29, p. 330). Dr. Dybowski and the late Professor Taczanowski have 

 described two Swallows from Kamtschatka as S. kamtschatica and S. borealis. "We 

 find from the posthumous work of Dr. Taczanowski that the former is referred tc 

 H. tytleri, and S. horealis to H. guthiralis; and Mr. Stolzmann kindly sent us the 

 " types " of H. kamtschatica for examination. They are the chestnut-breasted S. tytleri, 

 and it is quite possible that Dr. Dybowski intended to name the rufous-coloured bird 

 II. kamtschaMca, but in his description he says, " Abdomen et sous-caudales hlancsT 

 There can be little doubt but that the form he here diagnosed was the white-bellied 

 a. horealis, for which a similar description is provided. In the work of Dr. Stejneger 

 above quoted, the whole subject is most thoroughly treated, and we fully endorse all that 

 he says. However unfortunate the mistake in the original descriptions, the characters 

 as published must be held to be the responsible ones, and therefore the name of S. kamt- 

 schatica must be attached to the white-bellied Swallow. As both this name and that of 

 II. horealis were afterwards admitted hy Taczanowski to be synonyms of H. giotturalis 

 and II. tytleri, no radical change in nomenclature is involved. 



An excellent account of the distrilnition of the present species in Eastern Siberia is 

 given by Taczanowski in the work published by the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg 

 after his death ; and from this many of the following facts have been compiled. 



Dr. Stejneger did not meet with the Eastern Chimney-Swallow in Kamtschatka, but 

 Dr. Dybowski procured a sjoecimen at Petropaulowski on the 4th of June, 1882, and 

 observed several passing northward in spring. In Siberia the species apparently does 

 not extend to the Yenesei, as the specimens procured by Mr. Seebohm in that district 

 were true II. rnstica, and the mtermediate form between the latter and H. guttitralis. 

 In fact Taczanowski declares that after examining a large series of Swallows from 

 Siberia and North-eastern Asia, he finds the white-breasted birds only from the Ussuri 

 country and Amoor Land, but he admits that little attention has been paid by collectors 

 to the different forms, and thus it seems better to regard the bulk of the statements 

 referring to Eastern Siberian Swallows as referring to R. gutturalis, making no distinction 

 between the form \dt\i pure white breast and abdomen and that in which these parts 

 are slightly tinged with rufous. Seeing that in their winter homes both S. rustica and 

 M. gutturalis often occur side by side it would not be surprising that they often 

 iaterbred, after their arrival in their summer-quarters. 



Although the Russian travellers did not clearly discriminate between the forms of 

 Chimney-Swallow which they met with in Eastern Siberia, yet their various statements 

 have been apportioned to the different forms to which they belong by Dr. Stejneger and 

 Dr. Taczanowski. According to the latter, both Dybowski and Godlewski recognized 

 the Swallow of the Ussuri country as difi:ereut from the form found ia Dauria, the 

 southern Baikal country, and the neighbourhood of Irkutsk. The bird of the latter 

 regions was doubtless H. tytleri. 



