May., 1902. I 
THE CONDOR 
71 
The Western Barn Swallow 
BY JOSEPH GRINNELE. 
Hirundo erythrogastra palmer! new name. 
Hirmuio /wrreorinH Baird, Pac. R. R, Rep. IX, 1858, 308, part (notes large size of specimen 
from Sacramento); Baird, Rev. Am. Bds., May 1865, 294, part (attention called to large 
size of specimens from Fort Rae and New Mexico). 
Hirundo eryihrogastra CouES, Bds. Col. Val., 1878, 407, part (synonymy). 
Chelidon erythrogastra Nelson, Rep. Nat. Hist. Coll. Alaska, 1887, 197 (Gmelin’s name thought 
to apply to the Barn Swallow because only this species has been found at Unalaska). 
Hirundo erythrogastra unataschkensis (not the Hirundo unalaschkensisoi Gmelin, which seems 
to be not now identifiable) W. P.ALMER, Fur Seals & Fur Seal Ids. N. Pac., Pt. Ill, 1899, 
422 (characterization of an Alaskan race: large size, and great extent of white markings on 
tail); Allen, Auk XV'III, April 1901, 176 (republicatiou of description, with critical re- 
marks); Bishop, N. Am. Fauna No. 19, Oct. 1900, 87 (deep coloration of Alaskan specimens 
noted). , 
Hirundo erythrogaster Grinnell, Condor III, Jan. 1901, 23 (critical: Alaskan specimensstated 
to not differ from “U. S. specimens” [= skins from California] ). 
SuBSP. Char. — Similar to Hirundo eryihrogastra erythrogastra of Eastern North America, 
but colors beneath deeper and the frontal chestnut band broader and darker; wing and tail some- 
what longer and bill smaller. 
Type — <5 ad. ; No. 5094, Coll. J. Grinnell; Amaknak Id., Unalaska Harbor, Alaska; June 23, 
1900; Collected by R. C. McGregor. 
Measurements of type — W ing, 122 mm; tail, loi; from tip of shortest tail feather to tip of 
longest (that is, “forking”), 48; culmen, 6.5; bill from nostril, 5.5. 
Coloration of Type — -Foreneck, rich hazel; rest of lower parts including under wing and 
tail coverts, uniform cinnamon-rufous; forehead, deep chestnut, forming a band 8 mm. wide 
abruptly defined against the metallic marine blue of rest of upper surface; wings and tail black- 
ish glossed with greenish; inner webs of outer five tail feathers, each marked with an oblique 
white spot, the outer one being the largest and following the white shaft distally to within 40 
mm. of its tip. 
R.ange — Western North America, summering from southern California north to Kotzebue 
Sound, Alaska; west to Unalaska and east to and including the Rocky Mountains. 
Remarks — The form here characterized exhibits a signiticant tendency to- 
ward the Hirundo Jerdox of Karatschatka (See Stejneger, Bull. 29, U. S. 
N. M., 1885, 269). This tendency reaches its extreme in examples from south- 
western Alaska. Perhaps continuity in the range of a stock form of Barn Swal- 
lows once existed by the way of the Aleutian, Copper and Behring Islands to 
Kamtschatka. Divergence of migration routes may have caused specific separa- 
tion of the two initial races. Hirundo tytleri winters in Southern A.sia (India, 
Burmah, etc ) while H. e. pabneri passes south on the American side to Central 
.A.merica and beyond. 
Hirundo erythrogastra pabneri is named for William Palmer of Washington, 
whose paper on the “Avifauna of the Pribilof Islands” is a model of painstaking 
work. 
GENERAL NEWS NOTES. 
Will. H. Kobbe of San Francisco is taking a course in forestry at the Biltmore (N. C.) F'or- 
est School. 
W. E. Loucks, a well known ornithologist of Peoria, Ills, has been spending the spring 
months in Southern California 
Mr. Joseph Mailliard of San Geronimo is rusticating at Santa Barbara during the spring 
months, where he will collect locally. 
W. Otto Emerson unites us of a rufous-crowned sparrow captured by his cat in his 
garden at Haywards, Cal. on March 17, 1902. 
