588 HIKUNDO EUSTICA. 



Hirundo jewan, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 83. 



The Panayan Swallow and Javan Swallow (Lath.) ; The Chimney-Swallow, popularly in 

 England ; Golondrina, Oroneta, Spain (Saunders) ; Andorinha, Portuguese ; Zwcduw, 

 Dutch ; Ababil, Hind. ; Talli illedi kuravi, lit. " Bird without a head," Tamul ; Wauna 

 Kovela, Telugu ; Paras pitta of the Mharis (Jerdon) ; JJ'i Karloghach, Yarkandis (Scully) ; 

 Khotaifa, Moorish (Irby) ; Tammpddy, Tamil; Fiisti Fecske, Transylvania. 



Wcehcelaniya, lit. ; ' Rain-fowl," Sinhalese. 



. Ldull mule (winter, Ceylon, 3 examples). Length 6-8 to 7'0 ; wing 4-5 to 4-7 ; tail 3-5 to 3-8 ; tarsus 0-4 ; middle toe 

 and claw 0-6 : bill to gape 0-55 to 0-6 ; depth of tail-fork 2-0 to 3-0. 



Iris brown : bill, legs, and feet black. 



Head and upper surface glossy blue-black ; wings and tail dull black, the quills with a bluish tinge on the inner webs ; 

 the longer tail-feathers with a greenish lustre, and the shorter with a bluish one ; all but the central rectrices with 

 a large white spot, which, on the lateral pair, runs out to a point ; forehead, chin, throat, and upper part of chest 

 ferruginous chestnut, bounded beneath by a black interrupted pectoral band of variable width ; under surface, 

 under tail and under wing-coverts white, tinged on the sides of the breast and at the vent strongly with rufesceut. 



Female. Wing about 4-5 inches; lateral tail-feathers about 075 inch shorter than in the male. 



Iris, bill, legs, and feet the same. 



Differs from the male in having the under surface almost pure white. 



Young (Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, July). Head brown, glossed with metallic green ; front of the forehead sienna-red ; 

 back and rump blackish green, with a greyish hue; wings dark greenish brown, coverts glossed with green ; chin 

 and throat pale sienna, beneath which is a broad brown pectoral band, well defined above, but washed in the centre 

 with sienna ; beneath white, suffused with delicate reddish buff, the centre of the breast less so than the sides; 

 flanks dusky ; outer tail-feathers 0"9 longer than the central pair ; wing 4'9 inches. 



On growing older the sienna colour of the forehead fades, and is encroached upon by the black, and also the reddish 

 hue of the under surface vanishes, while the red throat changes to huffy white. On arriving in Ceylon in October 

 the yearling bird has the edge of the forehead only rufesceni greyish, the throat rufeseent white (specimens often 

 exemplifying the change of colour in the feathers by patches of red and whitish), and the under surface whitish, 

 with the pectoral band brown ; the lateral feathers are still short and rounded at the tips. When leaving the 

 island during the spring moult, the forehead and throat become rufous, the pectoral band becomes black, and 

 the under surface in the males is suffused with buff. 



Obs. The above descriptions relate to the Asiatic race of the Common Swallow which visits Ceylon. Old birds arrive 

 in the island in much the same plumage in which they leave England in October, the under surface in the males 

 being only tinged here and there with buff. A Hampshire specimen in my collection corresponds in this respect 

 with one shot at Galle in October. I do not know whether, as a rule, they arrive at their breeding-haunts, after 

 leaving Ceylon, with the under surface as much suffused with reddish as is the case with the males on their arrival 

 in England; some Central-Asiatic summer examples I have seen exhibit this character, so that it is probable 

 that the spring plumage on both continents is the same. 



A.S the Swallow ranges eastward from Europe it has a tendency to become smaller, and to acquire a pectoral band 

 more or less interrupted at the middle by the rufous colour of the throat, thus approaching the American form, 

 11. horreorum (found, according to Mr. Dresser, beyond Lake Baikal), which is closely allied to the European 

 species, and has the band merely in the form of a black patch on the sides of the chest, and the underparts rufes- 

 ceut or yellowish brow a. 



This incomplete banded and usually small Asiatic form is the II. gutturalis of Scopoli ; and it is customary to class most 

 I ndian specimens of the Common Swallow under that name. Chinese specimens, as a rale, are typical, and so are 

 those from Tenasserim (Hume, Str. Feath. 1S78, p. 41). Seven adults in the Swinhoe collection vary in the 

 wing from 4-4 to 4-(>, anil have the pectoral band incomplete. Our Ceylon birds belong to this form, but they are 

 intermediate in size between it and the true rustica. I state this with reserve, as I have only a small series ; but 

 one young female measures nearly 4'5, and this is about the average size of Swinhoe's adults. 



On the other hand it must not be supposed that all Asiatic specimens can be strictly classed with this smaller race ; 

 they vary exceedingly, some being large, with the characteristic European black pectoral band, and some equallv 



