Adult female. Similar to the male in colour. Total length 4-5 inches, culmen 0'3, ^ving 4-1, tail IT.", 

 tarsus 035. 



We have described a pair of birds from the Xilghiris, though from this part of India the specimens 

 are decidedly darker in colour than many birds from other localities. 



This Swallow varies considerably in the colour of tlie under surface; but we have not been able to trace 

 a definite character by which actual races or subspecific forms can be recognized. The connection 

 between H. javanica and H. tahitlca is much closer than has been generally supposed. If a 

 specimen of typical H. javanica from Java be compared with one of H. tah'itica from Tonga, the 

 two species seem to all appearances to be quite distinct. In H. tah'itica the rufous forehead and 

 throat appear much darkei', and the under surface of the body is also darker and almost entirely 

 uniform, with the exception of some blue-tipped feathers in the centre of tlie chest, which form a 

 streak. The tail also is entirely uniform, without any white spots on the inner web. Thus, were 

 these characters constant, there would be no difficulty in distinguishing the two species; but, as a 

 matter of fact, the white spots on the tail vary to such an extent, that it is even doubtful whether 

 absolute specific characters can be drawn between these two supposed species. Under the heading 

 of H. tahitlca we have alluded to the variation in the spotting of the tail-feathers, and we need 

 not further allude to the subject here; but in H. javanica the shade of ashy brown on the under- 

 parts is also a variable character. Specimens from the Malayan Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, and 

 Lombock are very similar to one another, and are nearly as uniform below as //. tahitica, tliis 

 being especially the case with the Lombock birds ; but in none of them is there any trace of the 

 mesial black plumes on the centre of the chest. The under tail-coverts are somewhat rufescent 

 on the margins. In specimens from Southern India the under surface is dark, and the under 

 tail-coverts are margined with whitish, as a rule. The birds from the Philippines and Palawan 

 are much whiter on the abdomen, and specimens from North-eastern Borneo and Labuan 

 I'csemble them in the white abdomen and white-edged under tail-coverts ; but other examples from 

 Sarawak and Banjarmassing are of the same dark-breasted form as that which inhabits Java and 

 the Sunda Islands generally. The only specimens from South-eastern Xew Guinea in the British 

 Museum are exceptionally pale in colour and have the abdomen conspicuously white, while the 

 under tail-coverts also appear to be paler and to have only subterminal black markings, without 

 any long black central coverts, as is often the ease with specimens from other localities. Thev 

 approach, in fact, H. neoxena, but of course have not the elongated tail-feathers of that species. 



The present species belongs to tlic section of the genus H/'/'iii/do Avliich cnnfains our 

 Common Swallow and its allies; but it is one of the short-tailed seclinn of tlu^ i;vnus, 

 which, though strongly represented in tlie Indian Region, has several near allies in 

 Africa. The range of IT. jaranica is interesting, as it is one of those species of birds 

 which occur in Southern India and Ceylon, but avoid the Indian Peninsula in general. 

 and then reappear in the islands of the ]?ay of ]?engal and extend throughout the 

 Malayan Uegion. In tlie case of the present species the range is eontiniied tliroiiglioul 

 the [Moluccas and Papuan Islands as mcU. 



"The present species," writes Colonel Legge, "is a rc^sidenl inliabilant id" the 

 mountains of Ceylon, and is, as in the south of India, restricted to liiuli elevations. 

 Though common as low down as the \alley of I)und_)ara, it appears resolulel\ to decline 



3g 



