478 
2 
2 ad. mari similis sed sordidior et caudé minus forficata, rectricibus extimis non tam elongatis. 
Adult Male (Pagham, Sussex, 23rd April). Forehead and upper part of the throat rich chestnut-red; head, 
neck, a broad band covering the lower throat and upper breast, and the upper parts of the body, 
including the wing-coverts and scapulars, deep steely blue; quills black, glossed with purplish blue or 
bottle-green ; tail similarly coloured, all except the two central rectrices having a large white patch 
towards the tip of the inner web; underparts white, with a very faint blush of reddish, which is most 
perceptible on the flanks and under tail-coverts; bill and feet black; iris brown.- Total length about 
8 inches, culmen 0:4, gape 0°6, wing 4:8, tail 4°7, lateral rectrices extending about 2°75 beyond the 
central one, tarsus 0°45. 
Adult Female. Resembles the male, but is, if any thing, a trifle duller in colour, and the outer rectrices are 
somewhat shorter. 
Nestling (Highgate, 22nd June). Frontlet (extending backwards over the eye) and throat very pale sienna ; 
Obs. 
space between the bill and the eye, as well as the cheeks, black; entire upper surface dusky steel-blue ; 
quills blackish, edged externally with greenish blue, as also the tail, which is almost square, the spots 
on the latter white, tinged faintly with buff; a band extending across the lower part of the throat and 
chest black, with scarcely any blue reflection ; rest of the under surface of the body white, tinged with 
delicate buff; flanks dusky; bill blackish, yellow along the gape; feet dark brown. 
In 1870 (P. Z. S. 1870, pp. 244-249) My. Sharpe and myself entered fully into the question of the 
changes of plumage undergone by the Common Swallow between the nesting-plumage and the fully 
adult dress, and described eleven specimens in various stages. These descriptions I will not reproduce 
here, but will merely state that when the young bird has left Hurope and arrived at its winter quarters 
the pale sienna frontlet has disappeared, and the throat has faded to white with a faint rufous tinge 
or pure white, the breast-band is pale brown, and the upper surface of the body is dull brown washed 
with blue, the entire head being brown. From this plumage it gradually moults before it leaves its 
winter quarters into the fully adult dress; and I have examined specimens from South Africa which 
have the brown on the head and upper parts intermixed with freshly moulted steel-blue feathers, and 
the throat and frontlet are becoming rufous. One of the most interesting of these birds in change of 
plumage is the one we described as specimen no. 5, and is still in my collection. 
In the spring the Swallow, when it first arrives in Europe, has the underparts suffused with warm buff, and 
Obs. 
The 
in this stage of plumage it has been not unfrequently mistaken for H. savignit. 
At the first glance it would appear as if our European Swallow were quite distinct from the forms 
found in Asia and America; but from careful examination of a large series from various localities it 
would appear as if it gradually passed from true Airundo rustica, having the broad strongly marked 
pectoral band, into Hirundo horreorum, which has the pectoral band only on the sides, the centre being 
interrupted by chestnut, and the underparts are much redder than in our European bird. I have 
placed a large series of European birds from almost every part of Europe by the side of an equal 
number of American Swallows from Mr. Salvin’s collection; and the differences appear quite constant ; 
but a series of Asiatic examples lent to me by Lord Walden exhibit almost every gradation between 
the two. It will therefore be necessary to make a few remarks respecting these birds. 
series from European and African localities I may dismiss after saying that they all agree in having the 
dark pectoral band clearly and fully developed. One or two have a brown feather or two in this band ; 
but these appear to be scarcely fully adult specimens. 
Taking first specimens from India, I find in the series from Lord Walden’s collection four examples from 
