PETEOCHELrDON. 227 



Our knowledge of P. pyrrhonota in Mexico is almost confined to the observations of 

 Grayson, who found it breeding in the month of May in the banks of the Mazatlan 

 river, where he says it appeared to be a summer visitant, as he did not observe it in 

 the winter months ^\ Mazatlan, therefore, may be considered the extreme southern 

 limit of its breeding-quarters ; but northward of this point, in the United States it is a 

 very familiar species, except in the Southern States. The only other records we have 

 of its occurrence in Central America are by Mr. Lawrence, who determined one of 

 M'Leannan's Panama birds to be of this species ^, and Professor Baird, who tells us that 

 another was obtained ofi" the west coast of Central America by Capt. J. M, Dow ^^. 



The habits of P. fyrrhonota in North America are very fully given by Dr. Cones in 

 his ' Birds of the Colorado Valley,' and especially its mode of nidification ^^. 



2, Petrochelidon swainsoni. 



Hirundo melanogaster , Sw. Phil. Mag. new ser. i. p. 366 '. 



Petrochelidon melanogaster, Cab. Mus. Hein. i. p. 47^. 



Petrochelidon swainsoni, Scl. P. Z. S. 1858, p. 296' j 1859, p. 376"; Cat. Am. B. p. 40'; Baird, 



Rev. Am. B. i. p. 390'/ Salv. Ibis, 1866, p. 192'; Sumichrast, Mem. Bost. Soc. N.H. i. 



p. 547'; Lawr. BuU. U. S. Mus. no. 4. p. 17'; Duges, La Nat. i. p. 141". 

 Hirundo coronota, Licbt. Preis-Verz. mex. Vog. p. 2, c£. J. f. Orn. 1863, p. 58 " (descr. nulla) . 



P. pyrrhonotcB valde similis, sed fronte rufa capitis lateribus ooncolori distinguenda. (Deaor. feminse ex 

 Oaxaca, Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 



Hab. Mexico 2^", Guanajuato {Buges'^^), Plateau of Mexico {Sumichrast^), Table- 

 land andEeal del Monte {Bullock^), Mirador (iS'sr^orms ^), Totontepec {Boucard^), 

 Oaxaca (Boucard ^ ^), Tehuantepec city (Sumichrast ^) ; Guatemala, Duenas ^j 

 Godines (0. S. & F. B. G.). 



Swainson's inappropriate name (Rirundo melanogaster) was the first given to this 

 Species, the black pectoral spot doubtless having suggested a word not applicable to 

 another part of the bird. Mr. Sclater rectified this error by calling it Petrochelidon 

 swainsoni; and this name has since been almost universally adopted. Had Lichtenstein 

 added a sufficient description when he called the bird Hirundo coronata in 1831, this 

 name might have been substituted for Swainson's ; but we can only recognize it by 

 reference to the specimens in the Berlin Museum, which belong undoubtedly to 

 Swainson's species. 



P. swainsoni may be easily recognized from P . fyrrhonota by the forehead being of a 

 rich chestnut instead of creamy white. In this respect it resembles P.fulva, which 

 difi"ers again in not having a black pectoral spot, and in the flanks and crissum bemg 

 strongly tinged with fulvous. Dr. Coues * treats these differences with less considera- 

 tion than they really deserve ; for he looks upon P. fulva as scarcely, if at all, different 

 from P. lunifrons (=P.fyrrhonota), whilst P. swainsoni is placed as a simple synonym of 



* B. Col. VaU. i. p. 426. 



29* 



