176 



RUFOUS SWALLOW. 



that it was not right to use the word Capensis for 

 a European species, and he therefore translated the 

 word Rousseline, given to the Cape bird by Le Vaillant, 

 into Rufula. The next difficulty it had to encounter 

 was from the Prince of Canino, who, after adopting 

 the name of Temminck in his "List," in 1838, applied 

 the name Alpestris in his "Catalogo degii uccelli 

 Europei," in 1842. In his "Revue Critique de 

 P ouvrage de Docteur Degland sur les Oiseaux d' 

 Europe," in 1850, he further adds to the confusion 

 by describing it as a miniature Hirundo Senegalensis, 

 although it is at once distinguished from that bird by 

 the black apex of the under tail coverts. He also 

 united it with another distinct bird, the H. melano- 

 crissa, of Riippell. Schlegel, in his "Revue Critique 

 des Oiseaux d' Europe," of 1S44, was the first to 

 notice the confusion of the true H. rufula of Sicily 

 with its congeners, namely, H. Capensis, H. alpestris, 

 (Daurica,) H. Senegalensis, and H. striolata. 



Keyserling and Blasius, in "Die Wirbelthiere Europas," 

 1840, describe as a European species the H. alpestris 

 of Pallas, and identify it with H. rufula. Schinz, 

 following Temminck, confounds H. rufula with H. 

 Capensis; while Degland, in his Ornithologie Euro- 

 peene," in 1849, describes the male bird with the 

 omission of the important character of the termination 

 in black of the inferior tail coverts; but for the 

 female he again falls back, and gives a description of 

 H. Capensis, in which mistake he is followed by M. 

 Crespon, in the "Faune Meridionale." 

 - Gould figures H. Senegalensis for H. rufula. Lesson, 

 in his "Traite Ornithologie," 1831, confounds Rufula 

 with both Senegalensis and Capensis. Riippell figures 

 H. melanocrissa for the first time, in 1845, in his 



