2 



admit of its being made into a skin for scientific purposes. It will be noticed that 

 Colonel Grant mentions a second kind of Swallow as observed by him along with 

 P. albiceps at Usui. This bird has given rise to all kinds of conjectures as to the species 

 observed bv the travellers. Drs. Einsch and Hartlaub susre'ested that Grant's smaller 

 black Swallow might possibly be Psalidoprocne obscura, and the late Baron von Heuglin 

 appears to have had scarcely any doubt on the subject ; but we were careful to suggest 

 in 1870 that it was just as likely to have been the female of P. albiceps. 



Nearly thirty years elapsed since Colonel Grant shot the first specimen of the 

 White-headed Swallow before examples of the species were again obtained. It is to 

 Emin Pasha that we owe its rediscovery, for he forwarded in 1887 to the British Museum 

 three specimens procured by him in the neighbourhood of Wadelai. An adult male, 

 killed on the 28th of June, is in worn plumage and is moulting, as is also a female 

 obtained on the 5th of July. The white feathers on the crown in the latter specimen 

 are so much abraded that the dusky bases of the feathers show through on the sinciput 

 and hinder crown, and give the head a spotted appearance. 



The young bird, obtained by Emin Pasha in December, is uniformly smoky black, 

 but has a good many white feathers on the crown and throat. Before the white feathers 

 appear, it is evident that the young birds must be perfectly uniform, and it is most 

 likely that the smaller black Swallow observed by Colonel Grant was the young of 

 P. albiceps, which would probably be flying about with the parent birds in October, as 

 Emin Pasha's specimen is only beginning to assume the adult plumage early in 

 December. The young bird in its uniform plumage bears some resemblance to the 

 adult of P. holomelcena ; but it is altogether a browner bird, and has not the bottle-green 

 gloss which distinguishes the last-named bird at all seasons. 



The figures in the Plate represent an adult and a young bird. They have been 

 drawn from the specimens sent by Emin Pasha, and the descriptions have been taken 

 from the same individuals. 



