2 



■distinct on the wing-coverts and secondaries. The under surface is nearly uniform sooty brown, 

 with ashy margins, more distinct on the breast and abdomen, the under tail-coverts rather broadly 

 tipped with white. 



The series in the British Museum measures : — 



Total length. Wing. Tail. Tarsus, 



in. in. in. in. 



a. <$ ad. Rio Negro {Hudson) 8-3 56 335 0-55 



b. $ ad. „ „ 7-8 5'5 3-15 0-55 



c. ? imm. Chupat (Durnford) 7S 5"45 3\2 06 



d. cJ ad. Chili [Bridges) 7-8 5-45 3'2 06 



e. $ ad. Mendoza (Weisshaiqjt) 7 - 4 5 - 55 3'15 06 



/. $ ad. „ „ . , 7-7 5-45 3"25 0-6 



g. ? ad. Rio Negro {Hudson) 77 5'3 2"9 055 



h. ? ad. Mendoza (Weisshaupt) . . 7-2 5-3 2-6 0-6 



i. $ ad. „ „ 7-7 5"3 30 0-55 



k. ? ad. „ „ 7-7 5-6 3-15 0-55 



Hab. Patagonia, northwards, apparently to the Argentine Republic, and westwards as far as Mendoza. 



The details of the range of this species are by no means satisfactorily recorded, and 

 more information is desirable. The series of skins in the British Museum indicates that 

 it is an inhabitant of Patagonia, and that it extends as far as Mendoza. All the other 

 records are involved in great obscurity, and without the evidence of specimens they 

 must all be received with more or less suspicion, the more so that until quite recently 

 the species was confounded, even by authors of repute, with P. purpurea, and in all 

 probability with P. domestica also. The latter is a large form of P. chalybea, resident 

 in South-eastern Brazil, while P. purpurea is only a winter visitor to South America. 



The following note is given by Mr. Darwin in his account of the Voyage of the 

 ' Beagle ' : — 



" My specimens were obtained at Monte Video (November), and Bahia Blanca, 39° 

 S. (September). At the latter place the females were beginning to lay in September 

 (corresponding to our March) ; they had excavated deep holes in a cliff of compact 

 earth, close by the side of the larger burrows inhabited by the Ground Parrot of Pata- 

 gouia {Pslttacara patagonica). I noticed several times a small flock of these birds, 

 pursuing each other, in a rapid and direct course, flying low, and screaming in the 

 manner so characteristic of the English Swift." 



Not a single specimen of Progne collected by Mr. Darwin appears to have passed 

 to the British Museum, and consequently we are unable to state whether the species 

 obtained by him at Monte Video was the same as the one met with at Bahia Blanca, 

 which was, of course, the true P. furcata. 



The late Mr. Henry Durnford, writing on the birds observed by him in Central 

 Patagonia, says that this species was a spring and summer visitor. " Observed commonly 



