Birds. 8745 



only in S.W. Formosa that I observed this bird ; and I may here 

 remark that I have never been able to trace it further north on the 

 Chinese coast than Amoy, which is a trifle higher latitude than its 

 position in Formosa. 



16. Hirundo gutturalis, Scop. 



17. H. datirica, L. Pallas, with his usual minuteness, has well 

 described this bird and its nesting peculiarities. It is found in 

 the extreme north of China as a summer resident only ; but in the 

 south, where the winter climate is more genial, it stays all the year, 

 roaming about in small parties during the cool weather, and merely 

 shifting its haunts from exposed to sheltered localities according to 

 the severity of the season. In Southern China it is by no means so 

 common as the chimney swallow, and far more locally distributed ; 

 but in Formosa, both north and south, it abounds in almost every 

 homestead. Being a resident bird, and not subject to distant migra- 

 tions, we should naturally expect, according to recent theories, to find 

 it subject to some variation through its insular position ; and this we 

 do observe in the larger form, longer wing, and almost entire absence 

 of the red nuchal collar in our bird. The same facts are observed 

 and indirectly admitted, in the variety prevalent at Japan, by a 

 thorough anti- Darwinian, Professor Schlegel, who is so struck with 

 the differences offered by the Japanese bird as to make of it a sub- 

 species under the term H. alpestris japonica. The variations in the 

 Formosan bird are, however, too trifling to found on them a new spe- 

 cies ; and were not the triple nomenclature held in such objection by 

 the majority of modern naturalists, we could not do better than em- 

 ploy it in this instance. On taking possession of our native house at 

 Tamsuy, I observed a nest of this swallow under the rafters in the 

 central hall. It was exteriorly built of specks of mud, like the nests 

 of the martin, but had a neck-like entrance, giving the whole the form 

 of a French flask, flattened against the roof; the inside was lined 

 amply with feathers. Pallas's figure gives a very good idea of its 

 structure. The mouth, however, does not always point upwards, but 

 is adapted in form and direction to the shape of the spot against 

 which it is placed. At the close of March the pair to which the nest 

 belonged returned, and in April began to repair the old nest. 

 Towards the close of this month the female was sitting on three 

 white, unspotted eggs. The male and female share the duties of 

 incubation, the female usually taking the longest spell. For the sake 

 of Science we let the birds have their own way, though they made a 



VOL. XXI'. 3 K 



