254 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



Family HIRUNDINID^;. The Swallows. 



Sub-Family Hirundinin^e. 



BP1 triangular, very short and broad, much depressed; the ridge much less than 

 half the head; the gonys two-thirds this length; the gape extending to below the 

 eye; primaries nine; the first longest, and, with the second, considerably longer 

 than the others; the secondaries and tertials not reaching the middle of the prima- 

 ries; the secondaries deeply emarginate; wings very long, reaching beyond the 

 commencement of the fork of the tail, which is generally more or less deep; tarsi 

 scutellate, very short, less than the lateral toes, the inner of which is more deeply 

 cleft than the outer. 



HIRDNDO, Lisn^eus. 



Eirtmdo, Lixnmus, Syst. Nat. (1735). Gray, Genera, I. (184B). 



Nostrils basal, small, oblong, and covered partly by a membrane ; tail more or 

 less forked; the outer lateral feather sometimes greatly lengthened; tarsi shorter 

 than the middle toe, and scutellated; tarsi naked; toes long, slender, the lateral ones 

 unequal ; claws moderate, curved, acute. 



HIBTJNDO HOEEEOEUM. — Barton. 



The Barn Swallow. 



Eirundo Jiorreorum, Barton. Fragments N. H. Penna. (1799) 17. 

 Sirundo Americana, Wilson. Am. Orn., V. (1812) 34. 

 Birundo rus&ca, Audubon. Orn. Biog., II. (1834) 413. 



Description. 



Tail very deeply forked ; outer feathers several inches longer than the inner, very 

 narrow towards the end ; above glossy-blue, with concealed white in the middle of 

 the back ; throat chestnut ; rest of lower part reddish-white, not conspicuously dif- 

 ferent; a steel-blue collar on the upper part of the breast, interrupted in the middle: 

 tail feathers with a white spot near the middle, on the inner web. Female with the 

 outer tail feather not quite so long. 



Length, six and ninety one-hundredths inches ; wing, five inches ; tail, four and 

 fifty one hundredths inches. 



ri^HIS beautiful and well-known bird arrives in New 

 JL. England from about the 10th of April to the 25th of 

 that month, according to latitude : it is quickly dispersed in 

 great numbers through these States, and soon commences 

 mating. Its habits are so well known that any description 



