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HIRUNDO EUSTICA. 
Hirundo jeimn, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 83. 
The Panayan Swallow and Javan Swallow (Lath.) ; The Chimney-Swallow, popularly in 
England ; Golondrina, Oroneta, Spain (Saunders) ; Andorinha, Portuguese ; Zwaluw, 
Dutch ; Ababil, Hind. ; Talli illedi kuravi, lit. “ Bird without a head,” Tamul ; Wanna 
Kovela, Telugu ; Paras pitta of the Mharis (Jerdon) ; Ui Karloghach, Yarkandis (Scully) ; 
Khotaifa, Moorish (Irby); Tamm pddy, Tamil; Fiisti Fecske, Transylvania. 
Wcelmlaniya, lit. “ Eain-fowl,” Sinhalese. 
Adult ??iaZ6 (winter, Ceylon, 3 examples). Length 6‘8 to 7'0 j wing 4'5 to 4'7 ; tail 3'5 to 3'8 ; tarsus 0'4 ; middle toe 
and claw 0-0 ; bill to gape 0-55 to 0'6 ; depth of tail-fork 2-0 to 3'0. 
Iris brown ; bill, legs, and feet black. 
Head and upper surface glossy blue-black ; wings and tail dull black, the quills with a bluish tinge on the inner webs ; 
the longer tail-feathers with a greenish lustre, and the shorter with a bluish one ; alt but the central rectrices with 
a large white spot, which, on the lateral pair, runs out to a point ; forehead, chin, throat, and upper part of chest 
ferruginous chestnut, bounded beneath by a black interrupted pectoral band of variable width ; under surface, 
under tail and under wing-coverts white, tinged on the sides of the breast and at the vent strongly with rufescent. 
Female. Wing about 4‘5 inches ; lateral tail-feathers about 0’75 inch shorter than in the male. 
Iris, bill, legs, and feet the same. 
Differs from the male in having the under surface almost pnre white. 
Young (Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, July). Head brown, glossed with metallic green ; front of the forehead sienna-red ; 
back and rump blackish green, with a greyish hue ; wings dark greenish brown, coverts glossed with green ; chin 
and throat pale sienna, beneath which is a broad brown pectoral band, well defined above, but washed in the centre 
with sienna ; beneath white, suffused with delicate reddish buff, the centre of the breast less so than the sides ; 
flanks dusky ; outer tail-feathers 0-9 longer than the central pair ; wing 4-9 inches. 
On growing older the sienna colour of the forehead fades, and is encroached upon by the black, and also the reddish 
hue of the under surface vanishes, while the red throat changes to buffy white. On arriving in Ceylon in October 
the yearling bird has the edge of the forehead only rufescent greyish, the throat rufescent white (specimens often 
exemplifying the change of colour in the feathers by patches of red and whitish), and the under surface whitish, 
with the pectoral band brown ; the lateral feathers are still short and rounded at the tips. When leaving the 
island during the spring moult, the forehead and throat become rufous, the pectoral band becomes black, and 
the under surface in the males is suffused with buff. . 
Obs. The above descriptions relate to the Asiatic race of the Common Swallow which visits Ceylon. Old birds arrive 
in the island in much the same plumage in which they leave England in October, the under surface in the males 
being only tinged here and there with buff. A Hampshire specimen in my collection corresponds in this respect 
with one shot at GaOe in October. I do not know whether, as a rule, they arrive at their breeding-haunts, after 
leaving Ceylon, with the under surface as much suffused with reddish as is the case with the males on their arrival 
in England ; some Central-Asiatic summer examples I have seen exhibit this character, so that it is probable 
that the spring plumage on both continents is the same. 
As the Swallow ranges eastw'ard from Europe it has a tendency to become smaller, and to acquire a pectoral band 
more or less interrupted at the middle by the rufous colour of the throat, thus approaching the American form, 
H. Jiorreorwn (found, according to Mr. Dresser, beyond Lake Baikal), which is closely allied to the European 
species, and has the band merely in the form of a black patch on the sides of the chest, and the underparts rufes- 
ceut or yellowish brown. 
This incomplete banded and usually small Asiatic form is the H. gutturalis of Scopoli ; and it is customary to class most 
Indian specimens of the Common Swallow under that name. Chinese specimens, as a rule, are typical, and so are 
those from Tenasserim (Hume, Str. Eeath. 1878, p. 41). Seven adults in the Swinhoe collection vary in the 
wing from 4-4 to 4‘6, and have the pectoral band incomplete. Our Ceylon birds belong to this form, but they are 
intermediate in size between it and the true rusliea. I state this with reserve, as I have only a small series ; but 
one young female measures nearly 4‘5, and this is about the average size of Swinhoe’s adults. 
On the other hand it must not be supposed that all Asiatic specimens can be strictly classed with this smaller race ; 
they vary exceedingly, some being large, with the characteristic European black pectoral band, and some equally 
