duller in colour, and has some distinct blackish stripes on the head ; these are seen, however, 



occasionally in males. The following are some measurements of birds in the Hume Collection, 



from Bhurtpur and Ajmere : — 



Total length. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. 



in. in. in. in. 



a. S ad. Bhurtpur, Jan. 1868 40 3"55 T55 04 



b. ? ad. „ „ 4-3 35 1-6 0-4 



c. ? ad. „ „ 4-2 36 TO 035 



d. c? ad. Ajmere, Nov. 1869 4'2 3"55 T65 0-4 



e. ? juv. „ Dec. 1869 44 3'65 16 035 



/. ? ad. „ „ 4-3 3-5 16 0'4 



g. J juv. „ „ 4-2 3-55 T55 0'4 



h. ? ad. „ „ 4-3 3-6 16 0'4 



The old birds have whitish edgings to the ends of the inner webs, of the outer tail-feathers, 

 which are wanting in the young birds. Some stress has been laid on this point by various 

 writers, and Mr. Gould separated a species as Lagenoplastes empusa, which Mr. Blyth and Mr. 

 Jerdon were at one time inclined to recognize, the latter author mainly upon the absence of any 

 mention of these white markings in Gould's description. Jerdon considered that these markings' 

 were absent in the females and young birds, but the adult females have them, and they are only 

 absent in the young birds. The type of Gould's L. empusa is in the British Museum, aud it is 

 nothing but the young of P. fluvicola, with which it was apparently never compared. 



Young birds are distinguished by being dusky brown with scarcely any blue, the wing-coverts and 

 inner secondaries being edged at the end with pale rufous or isabelline buff; the feathers of the 

 rump and upper tail-coverts also have rufescent edges; the head is browner, with distinct streaks 

 of blackish ; the throat and chest are dusky brown, witb blackish streaks ; the underparts are 

 washed with rufous, and the under wing-coverts and axillaries are dusky brown, with a rufous 

 tinge. 



The labels of Mr. Hume's Ajmere specimens give the soft parts as follows: — "Bill horny black; 

 feet purplish brown, the soles and edges of scales greyish white." A male had the "iris reddish 

 brown, the bill dusky, the feet brown, with the soles grey." An immature bird, collected by 

 Colonel Butler at Belgaum, had "the irides dark brown, the feet and biil blackish." 



Immature birds, although blue above, may be distinguished from the adults by their reddish- 

 brown crowns, and the whitish fringes to the feathers of the back and secondaries. 



Hab. The peninsula of India, ranging from Cashmere to Ferozopur, the Sambhur Lake, Kathiawar, 

 aud Kutch, its eastern boundary being Behar and the neighbourhood of Mirzapur, whence it 

 extends through the Central Provinces and the Deccan as far south as Coimbatore. 



The present species and P. oriel of Australia constitute a section of the genus Petro- 

 chelidon wherein the head is rufous. The Indian bird differs from its Australian ally 

 in having the rump smoky brown, and the throat and fore neck broadly and distinctly 

 streaked with black. 



The Indian Cliff-Swallow is everywhere a more or less local bird. Its northward 

 range appears to be bounded by the Ganges, and its western one by the Indus, as there 



