SWALLOW. 171 



HIRUNDO RUSTICA. 

 SWALLOW. 



(Plate 17.) 



Plirundo domestica, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 486 (1760). 



Hirundo rustica, lAnn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 343 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum^ 



Omelin, Scopoli, Latham, Bonaparte, Temminck, Naumann, Begland ^ Oerbe, 



Newton, Ih-essei; &c. 

 Cecropis rustica (Linn.), Bote, Isis, 1826, p. 971. 



The Barn-Swallow, one of the best known and most familiar of our 

 native birds, is generally distributed throughout the United Kingdom, in- 

 cluding the Channel Islands. It is almost as common in Scotland as in 

 England, but is said not to breed on the Outer Hebrides, although seen 

 there every year. It is a regular summer visitor to Shetland, but the 

 instances of its breeding there are rare. In Ireland the Swallow is quite 

 as common and widely distributed as in England ; it is a rare straggler to 

 Iceland ; and Capt. Feilden states that in the Faroes considerable numbers 

 appear in May, but are never known to nest there. 



The Barn- Swallow, in one of its forms, is found throughout the Palse- 

 arctic and Nearctic Regions. The typical form breeds in Scandinavia up 

 to lat. 68° ; Finsch obtained it in West Siberia as far north as lat. 65° ; 

 MiddendorfF states that it occasionally occurs in lat. 63°, on the Yenesay ; 

 and I shot a solitary example in lat. 66^° in the same valley. North of 

 the Desert of Sahara it is a summer migrant ; but, according to Canon 

 Tristram, occasionally winters in the oases. Throughout Africa south of 

 the Desert it appears to be only a winter visitor. In Asia it breeds in 

 Asia Minor, Persia, Afghanistan, Gilgit, Turkestan, and West Siberia as 

 far east as Krasnoyarsk, and winters in Scinde and West India. In the 

 valley of the Yenesay it meets and apparently interbreeds with H. rustica, 

 var. gutturalis, which differs in being slightly smaller and in having the 

 dark pectoral band interrupted in the middle by the chestnut of the throat. 

 This form breeds throughout Mongolia, the Himalayas, China, and Japan, 

 and winters in India and Burma. In East Siberia, ranging as far west as 

 Lake Baikal, and eastwards across Behring's Straits and throughout the 

 Nearctic Region as far south as the plateaux of Mexico, H. rustica, var. 

 horreorum, breeds. The East-Siberian birds winter in Burma, where they 

 have been re-christened H. iytleri ; but the Mexican Swallows are said to be 

 resident, whilst those breeding in North America are said to migrate to 



