HIRUNDINIDJE : SWALLOWS. 
319 
and more yellowish-olive. Sides of head like back. Beneath yellow, clear and nearly pure 
medially, shaded on the sides with the color of the back, sometimes brightening almost into 
orange on the throat. Quills and tail fuscous, with olivaceous-yellow edgings, the former 
darker than the latter. Young $ : Like the 9 ? in males changing, the characters of the two 
sexes confused. Very young : There is an earlier streaky stage, before the assumption of a 
plumage like that of the 9 • Upper parts grayish-brown with an olive tinge ; lower parts 
grayish-white with a yellowish shade ; both everywhere streaked with dusky. Wings and tail 
like those of adult 9 > but the former with ochraceous bands across ends of greater and middle 
coverts. Southern Rocky Mt. region and southward. 
P. ludovicia'na. (Lat. of Louisiana, formerly of great extent in the West ; name now inap- 
plicable.) Crimson-headed Tanager. ^, adult: Middle of back, wings, and tail, black; 
wings crossed by two yellow or yellowish-white bars on ends of greater and middle coverts ; 
inner secondaries marked with white or yellowish. Head all around scarlet or even crimson, tlie 
color extending diluted on the breast. Other parts bright yellow, generally purest on the rump. 
Iris brown; bill horn-color; legs livid bluish. Length about 7-00; wing 3.50-4.00; tail 
2.75-3.25; bill 0.60; tarsus 0.75. 9? adult: Above, olive, darker and somewhat ashy-shaded 
on middle of back, clearer and brighter on rump and crown. Below, greenish-yellow, shaded 
with olive on sides. Wings and and tail fuscous, with edgings of the color of the upper j)arts ; 
greater and median coverts tipped with white or yellowish ; inner secondaries edged with the 
same. Averaging rather less than the ^ . The bird lacks the buffy shades characteristic of 9 
cestiva, besides being decidedly smaller. The general coloration, in its clear olive and yellow, 
is exactly that of 9 rubra; from which distinguished by the white or yellow markings on the 
wings. The ^ at first resembles the 9 ? and in progress toward maturity every gradation 
between the two is presented. The distinctive dark dorsal area, and traces of the red of the 
head, soon appear. In a usual condition of incomplete dress, the black of the back is mixed 
with gray or olive, the yellow of the back of the neck is obscured, that of the under parts is 
shaded with olive, and the head is only partly red. Upper Missouri region and eastern foot- 
hills of the Rocky Mts. to the Pacific ; British Columbia. Breeds in all its N. A. range and 
winters extralimital. Habits, nests, and eggs like those of our other Tanagers. 
12. Family HIRUNDINID^ : Swallows. 
Stvallows are fissirostral Oscine Passeres with 
nine primaries. Bill short, broad, fiat, some- 
what triangular, deeply cleft, the gape wide and 
about twice as long as the culmen, the mouth 
thus opening to about beneath the eyes. This 
is the strongest character of the family in com- 
parison with its Oscine allies, and one perfectly 
distinctive, though some genera of Hirundines, 
especially Progne, approach the Ampelidcs in 
the form of the bill. The bill narrows rapidly 
to the compressed acute tip. Nasal fossae short 
and wide ; nostrils directed laterally or upward, 
sometimes circular and completely exposed, 
sometimes scaled over. Culmen convex, 
scarcely a third as long as the head ; tip of 
upper mandible overhanging, usually nicked. Rictus smooth (or with a few inconspicuous 
bristles ?). Wings extremely long and strong, the pinion bearing only 9 primaries, the 1st of 
which equals or exceeds the 2d in length, the rest being so rapidly graduated that the 9th 
Fio. 179. — European Barn Swallow, Hirundo 
mstica. (From Dixon.) 
