THE AMERICAN BARN-SWALLOW. 
303 
Burmah. Most of the birds seen are immature, and may be observed all 
the year round. The adults apparently visit Burmah chiefly in the winter, 
from September to April. I have not seen any indications of its breeding 
in the Province. 
This Swallow is found, according to season, over almost every portion of 
Europe, Africa and Asia. It appears to breed in considerable quantities 
in the Himalayas and in the hill-tracts of Eastern Bengal, and Pere David 
states that they breed near Pekin in April. 
The Common Swallow, according to my observations, is to be found 
pretty w^ell all the year through in Burmah. It is always seen in large 
numbers flying in circles after its insect food, and frequently settling on 
telegraph-wires, dead trees, bare fields and stalks of grass. On a cold 
morning they may frequently be observed resting on the sunny bank 
of some river in immense flocks. 
The nest, which is made of mud and lined with feathers, is usually placed 
under the roof of houses and barns. The eggs are white, speckled with red. 
287. HIRUNDO HOREEOEUM. 
THE AMERICAN BARN- SWALLOW. 
Hirundo horreorum, Barton, Fragm. of Nat. Hist. p. 17; Baird, Brewer 8f Ridgw. 
Birds of N. Atner. i. p. 339, pi. xvi. Wald. in Bl. B. Burm. p. 127 ; Hume 8f 
Dav. S. F. vi. p. 42 Hume, S. F. viii. p. 84 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 183. 
Description. — Male and female. Like H. rustica, but rather more rufous 
below ; the deep ferruginous of the throat spreads downwards, and causes 
the black collar to be interrupted in the middle for the space of about half 
or two-thirds of an inch. In H. rustica, in some specimens, the ferruginous 
is in some degree mixed up with the black collar, but never to such an 
extent as to interrupt it. In a large series of H, horreorum from America 
I cannot find a bird which has the lower plumage white or nearly white, as 
is so frequently the case in H. rustica. 
Length about 7 inches, tail 3 '4, wing 4*7, tarsus '42, bill from gape '65. 
I have examined a Swallow shot by Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay at Tonghoo, 
and it appears to me to be a true H. horreorum. This identification had been 
previously arrived at by Lord Walden (/. c.) , The lower plumage is much 
darker than in the Common Swallow, and the collar is broken for about 
half an inch by a band of ferruginous. Among some Swallows which were 
shot at Tonghoo by Mr. de Wet, and presented to me by that gentleman, 
I find another undoubted specimen of this American Swallow. 
The American Barn- Swallow is spread over the greater portion of North 
