THE BARlN 6 WALLOW. 
185 
the crustaceous parts of which are disgorged in roundish pellets scarcely 
the size of a small pea. 
I have represented a pair of our Barn Swallows in the most perfect spring 
plumage, together with a nest taken from one of the rafters of a barn in 
the State of New Jersey, in which there was at least a score of them. 
An individual of this species preserved in spirits measured to end of tail 
6 t 8 2 inches, to end of wings 6/2 ; wing from flexure ; tail 3J ; extent of 
wings 12 t 9 2 - The roof of the mouth is flat and somewhat transparent ; the 
posterior aperture of the nares oblongo-linear, margined with strong papillae ; 
the. tongue 34 twelfths long, triangular, emarginate and papillate at the base, 
thin, the tip slit and lacerate. The mouth is supplied with numerous mucous 
crypts : its width is 5| twelfths. There is a very narrow flattened salivary 
gland, similar to that of the Purple Martin, but proportionally smaller. The 
oesophagus is 2 inches long, 1 -J twelfths in width, simple or without dilatation. 
The stomach is elliptical, 7 \ twelfths long, 6 twelfths broad, its muscles dis- 
tinct ; the epithelium, as in the other species, tough, with longitudinal rugae, 
and of a reddish-brown colour. The intestine is short and wide, its length 
being inches, its breadth from 2-J twelfths to 2 twelfths. The coeca are 
2 twelfths long, h twelfth wide, and placed at the distance of 11 twelfths 
from the extremity ; the rectum is dilated into an oblong cloaca ; about 5 
twelfths in width. 
The trachea is 1 inch 5 twelfths long, moderately flattened, from 1 twelfth 
to f twelfth in breadth ; its rings pretty firm, 50 in number, with two 
dimidiate rings. The muscles are as in the other species ; the bronchi are 
moderate, of about 15 half rings. 
Barn Swallow, Hirundo Americana , Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. v. p. 34. 
Hirundo Americana, American Barn Swallow, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., 
vol. ii. p. 329. 
Hirundo rufa, Bonap. Syn., p. 64. 
Barn Swallow, Hirundo rufa, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 601. 
Barn Swallow, Hirundo rustica, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. ii. p. 413 ; vol. v. p. 411. 
Tail very deeply forked, the lateral feathers much exceeding the wings. . 
Forehead and throat bright chestnut ; upper parts and a band on the fore- 
neck glossy deep steel-blue ; quills and tail brownish-black, glossed with 
green ; the latter with a white spot on the inner web of each of the feathers, 
except the two middle. Female similar to the male. Young less deeply 
coloured, the forehead and throat pale red, the band on the fore-neck 
dusky, tinged with red ; lateral tail-feathers not exceeding the wings. 
Male, 7, 13. Female, 6 ^, 12 A-. 
Yol. I. 
28 
