HIRUNDININ/E. 141 



HIEUNDININiE. 



First primary obsolete ; bill broad, flat, and notcbed ; tertials not 

 reaching beyond the middle of the wing. 



The Swallows are an almost cosmopolitan group of birds, and 

 number about eighty species, of which five are represented in the 

 Japanese Empire. 



124. HIEUNDO RUSTICA. 



(CHIMNEY-SWALLOW.) 



Hirundo rustica, Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 343 (1766). 



The Chimney- Swallow has a very deeply-forked tail. In the 

 typical form the throat is chestnut, bounded below by a black band. 

 In the Eastern race the chestnut extends below into the black band, 

 which it divides in the middle. 



Figures : Dresser, Birds of Europe, iii. pi. 160. fig. i. (typical 

 race) . 



The Eastern race of the Barn-Swallow is a common summer 

 visitor to all the Japanese Islands. There are several examples 

 sent by Captain Blakiston from Hakodadi in the Swinhoe collection 

 (Swinhoe, Ibis, 1874, p. 151) ; and there are four examples in the 

 Pryer collection from Yokohama. The examples obtained by the 

 Siebold Expedition were probably procured at Nagasaki (Temminck 

 and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, p. 31) ; and Mr. Hoist procured 

 a female on the Bonin Islands (Seebohm, Ibis, 1890, p. 102). 



The breeding-range of the Barn- Swallow extends from the British 

 Islands across Europe to Turkestan and West Siberia. Further east 

 it ranges in a slightly modified form through Mongolia and the 

 Himalayas, across China to Japan. 



The Eastern race of the Chimney-Swallow differs from the Western 

 race in having the black pectoral band almost interrupted in the 

 middle by the chestnut of the throat. It was described as a distinct 

 species as long ago as 1786, under the name of Hirundo gutturalis 

 (Scopolij Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr. ii. p. 96); but as the two races 

 completely intergrade, it can only be regarded as subspecifically 

 distinct under the name of Hirundo rustica gutturalis. 



The Barn-Swallows of Japan build in the native houses, where one 

 or more little wooden shelves are placed for their accommodation, 

 just inside the door on one of the rafters of the ceiling, and where 



