HIRUNDO ERYTHROPYGIA*. 



(THE LESSER MOSQUE-SWALLOW.) 



Hirundo erythropygia, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 83 ; Jerdon, Madr. Journ. 1840, xi. p. 237 ; 



Adam, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 370; Aitken, ibid. 1875, p. 212;] Butler, t. c. p. 451; 



Cripps, ibid. 1878, vol. vii. p. 257. 

 Hirundo daurica, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 198 (1849, in part); Layard and Kelaart, 



Prodromus, Appendix, Cat. p. 58 (1853); Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. 



i. p. 92 (1854, in part); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 170; Jerdon. 



B. of Ind. i. p. 160 (18G2, in part) ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 419. 

 Cecropis erythropygia, Jerdon, Ibis, 1871, p. 352. 



hillia erythropygia, Hume, Nests and Eggs, ii. p. 70 (1873) ; id. Str. Feath. 1877, p. 255. 

 The Bed-ramped Swallow, Jerdon. Masp'id ababil, lit. " Mosque-Swallow," Hind. 



Adult male and female. (Specimens in the British Musuem.) "Wing 4 - 4 to 4*5 inches; tail 3 - to 3*3, centre 

 feathers 1-1 to 1-4 shorter ; tarsus 0-5 ; middle toe without claw 0-48 ; bill to gape 05 to 055. Females seem to 

 be shorter in the tail than males. 



Mr. Hume, in his valuable ^nongraphic notice of the subgenus Lillia, gives the length at from 6-5 to 7"0, averagi 

 6'75 inches ; wing from 4-1 to 4-5. Weight 062 oz. (Cripps). 



Iris brown ; bill, legs, and feet black. 



Head, nape, hind neck, back, scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, and longer under tail-coverts glossy blue-black; greater 

 wing-coverts, primaries, secondaries, and tail-leathers brownish black, glossed chiefly on the outer webs with 

 greenish; a superloral streak passing above the eye, spreading out over the ear-coverts, and running thence 

 beneath (lie nape dark ferruginous chestnut ; rump and shorter upper tail-coverts paler chestnut than the cheeks. 

 forming a baud aboul , f inch or more wide ; in some specimens there are a few black-shafted feathers among the 

 upper tail-coverts ; a Mack spot immedial ly in front of the eye, between which and the bill the lores are whitish: 

 entire under surface, with the under wing- and under tail-coverts, buffy white, palest on the throat, and most 

 strongly washed with buff on the flanks, each feather, except on the belly, with a tine brown shaft-streak; 

 terminal portion of the under tail-coverts black. 



Young. \ specimen from Behar has the inner secondaries tipped with rufesceut, and is very strongly tinged with 



buff on the flanks and under wing-coverts. Another from the Godaveri River has the chestnut colour of the 



cheeks and ear-coverts of less extent and very pale ; inner secondaries tipped with buffy white ; stripes of the 



: ader surface bolder than in the adult; chestnut rump-baud very pale, and with one or two dark stripes ; a pale 



on the inner web of (lie outer tail-feathers. 



The just-flown nestling, according to Mr. Hume, has hardly any trace of striatums. 



This Swallow was confounded by Layard with the larger northern form, //. daurica. Linn., = //. alpestris, Pallas. 

 apud Hume, or rather with some one or other of the Himalayan birds, which were then considered identical with 

 the Central- Asian species. Specimens of H. alpestris from Mongolia, Assam, and other parts of Central Asia, 

 which I have examined, have the wing 4 - 8 to -VI inches and the tail 4T to 4-6 ; the striatums of the under surface 

 are bolder and tin' uropygial band wider than in 11. erythropygia, and streaked in some specimens with dark 

 shaft-stripes ; a \. lei ish -|>"t on tin' inner web of the outer tail-leathers is present in some skins. 

 //. nipalensis belongs t" this group, with the well-marked striatums on the under surface. Wing 4-6 to 4 - S inches ; 

 no white on tail : wines and tail brown ; rump-band OS to 1*0 ; ears dingy yellowish white or pale dingy rufes- 

 i-eiit. densely striated with dusky. Its larger size and bolder striatious distinguish it, too, from the subject of the 

 present article. 



This species and its allies are placed by some in the subgenus Lillia, characterized by the rufous or pale uuderparts 

 r striated or unstriated, and by the rufous rump-band striated in most. 



