324 



SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS — PA S SERES — OSCINES. 



Claws little curved, the lateral reaching heyond the base of the middle one. Bill very small, 

 the nostrils opening laterally and overliung by a membrane. Tail much shorter than wings, 

 emarginate. Coloration dull and simple — lustreless brown above and across breast, white 

 below. Eggs uncolored, laid in holes in the ground excavated by the bird. Sexes aHlce. 

 163. C. ripa'ria. (Lat. rixiaria, riparian ; ripa, bank of a stream. Figs, 180, 184.) Bank 

 Swallow. ^ 9 : Lustreless mouse- 

 brown ; wings and tail fuscous. Be- 

 low, white, mth a broad pectoral 

 band of the color of the back. A 

 dusky ante-orbital spot. Length 

 about .5.00; extent 10..50 ; wing 

 4.00 ; tail 2.00. Sexes similar ; the 

 young differ chiefly in whitish edg- 

 ings of the feathers, especially of 

 the wings and tail. Even in the 

 adult, the upper parts are apt to 

 be not quite uniform, there being 

 paler gray edgings of most of the 

 feathers. The dark pectoral band 

 sometimes extends backward along 

 the middle of the under parts (n(.)t 

 shown in fig. 184). Autumnal speci- 

 mens have tlie secondaries white- 

 tipped. Very young birds have 

 rather rusty than whitish skirting 

 of the dailv feathers, and the white 

 throat speckled with the same. Al- 

 most cosmopolitan : Europe, Asia, 

 Africa, America ; abundant in N. 

 Am., breeding in immense troops in holes in the ground, wherever suitable sites offer, as 

 natural embankments, rail-road cuttings, gi-avel-pits, etc. 



54. STELGIDO'PTERYX. (Gr. crreX-yi's, stelgis, a scraper ; 7TTepv$, pferux, wing.) KOUGH- 

 WINGED Swallows. General aspect of Cotile ; forur and coloration much the same. Outer 

 web of 1st primary converted into a series of stiff, recurved hooks. (Other Swallows, as Psali- 

 doprocne Cab., have this peculiar wing structure, but are otherwise different.) The design of 

 the structure is not clear, but we may readily suppose that the hooks assist the birds in crawl- 

 ing into their holes, and in clinging to vertical or hanging surfaces. Tarsus slightly feathered 

 above, but lacking the curious tuft seen at the base of the hind toe in Cotile. Lateral claws 

 curved, and not reaching beyond the base of the middle. Basal joint of middle toe exten- 

 sively adherent to the outer, much less so to the inner. BiU small, with oval, superior nostrils 

 margined by membrane behind, but not overhung. Tail short and slightly emarginate. Eggs 

 uncolored, in holes dug by the birds, or elsewhere. Sexes alike. 



164. S. serripen'nis. (Lat. serra, a saw; peMwa, a feather.) RotJGH-wiNGED Swallow. ^ ?: 

 Lustreless mouse-brown or browmish-gray, paler below, gradually whitening posteriorly. 

 Wings and tail darker than the upper parts. Rather larger than the last species. No dark 

 pectoral band contrasting with white. No tuft of feathers at the base of the hind toe. Young : 

 At a very early age, the feathers of the back, rump, and wings are suffused or edged with rich 

 rusty-brown, while the under parts are more or less tinged with a paler shade of the same. 

 The booklets of the wings are only fully developed in adult birds, and are not appreciable at 

 all in young ones. U. S. and adjoining British Provinces ; rare in Eastern States. 



Fig. 184. — Bank Swallow. (Designed by H. W. Elliott.) 



