HIRUNDO LUCIDA, /. Verr. 

 SENEGAMBIAN CHIMNEY-SWALLOW. 



Hirundo lucida, J. Verr. J. f. O. 1858, p. 42; Hartl. J. f. O. ISGl, p. 103; Gray, 

 Hand-1. B. i. p. 68, no. 792 (1869) ; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 567 ; id. P. Z. S. 

 1870, p. 308 ; id. Cat. Afr. B. p. 46 (1871) ; Boxivier, Cat. Ois. etc. coU. Marclie, 

 p. 9 (1875) ; De Rocliebrune, Eaun. Seneg., Ois. p. 218 (1884) ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds 

 in Brit. Mus. s. p. 145 (1885). 



H. tergo caeruleo, uropygio dorso concolore; fronte rata; gutture ruf'o ; toi'qnc pcctorali cbalybeo inter- 

 rupto ; abdomine et subcaudalibus pure albis. 



Hab. in prov. Gambensi Africfe occidentalis. 



Adult. Above most brilliant steel-blue, inclining to indigo ; wing-coverts dark blackish brown, glossed 

 with steel-blue above, the innermost cubital feathers vrith a white spot on the inner web ; tail dce|) 

 steel-blue, all the feathers except the two middle ones for the most jiart pure white on the innrr 

 web, so that the tips and the part immediately edging the graduated extremity of the feather arc 

 black J a distinct though narrow frontlet and the entire throat deep brick-red; a band across the 

 breast, below the red throat, bright steel-blue, broad at the sides and narrow in the centre of the 

 breast ; rest of the under surface of the body pure white, with a few dusky feathers on the flanks, 

 and marked with narrow blue lines, more distinct in some specimens than in others ; bill and fort 

 black. Total length 6 inches, culmen 0'35, wing 4'25, tail 2'9, tarsus 04-. 



Hab. Senegambia. 



The name of lucida is very appropriate for this Swallow, ou account of the intense 

 brilliancy of the steel-blue of tlie upper surface. The pure wliitc breast and under tail- 

 coverts, as well as its small size and the large amount of white ou the tail, are also 

 characters which easily distinguish it from Hirundo rustica and the rest of the true 

 Chimney-Swallows. 



It is a very rare species in collections, and nothing is known of its changes of 

 plumage or of the coloration of the young. One bird in llic British Museum, and 

 formerly in Mr. Sharpe's African collection, is not so brilliantly coloured, and lias a 

 smoky-brown shade on the sides of the body. This has before been c-oiisidcrcd by us 

 to be an immature bird, but it lacks the pale edgings to the secondary (luills wliicli 

 generally accompany the plumage of a young Chimney-Swallow, and thus it may 

 ultimately prove to be an adult female bird. Accompanv in-' the sninky-hidw n umler- 

 parts there are traces of narrow dusky shai't-lines on the under lail-euvcrts, wliieh are 



