124 
BARN SWALLOW. 
they are usually very fat. Their nests or particular breeding- 
places I have not been able to discover. 
This minute species is found in Europe, and also at Nootka 
Sound, on the western coast of America. Length, five inches 
and a half ; extent, eleven inches ; bill and legs, brownish 
black ; upper part of the breast, gray brown, mixed with 
white ; back and upper parts, black ; the whole plumage above, 
broadly edged with bright bay and yellow ochre ; primaries, 
black ; greater coverts, the same, tipt with white ; eye, small, 
dark hazel ; tail, rounded, the four exterior feathers on each 
side, dull white, the rest, dark brown ; tertials, as long as the 
primaries ; head above, dark brown, with paler edges ; over 
the eye, a streak of whitish ; belly and vent, white ; the bill is 
thick at the base, and very slender towards the point ; the hind 
toe, small. In some specimens, the legs were of a dirty 
yellowish colour. Sides of the rump, white ; j ust below the 
greater coverts, the primaries are crossed with white. 
Very little difference could be perceived between the 
plumage of the males and females. The bay on the edges of 
the back and scapulars was rather brighter in the male, and 
the brown deeper. 
BARN SWALLOW. — HIRUNDO AMERICANA. 
Plate XXXVIII. Fig. 1. male; Fig. 2. female. 
Peale's Museum , No. 7609. 
HIRUNDO AMERICANA?— Wilson. * 
Hir undo rufa, JBonap. Synop. p. 64 Hirundo Americana, North. Zool. ii. p. S29. 
There are but few persons in the United States unac- 
quainted with this gay, innocent, and active little bird. Indeed 
the whole tribe are so distinguished from the rest of small 
* Wilson at once perceived the difference between the present species, and 
as it is commonly called the “ Chimney Swallow ” of Europe, though many of 
his contemporaries considered them only as varieties. The Prince of Musignano 
has, however, considered it as previously described by Latham under the title 
of H. rufa, and again figured as the same by Vieillot. 
The authors of the Northern Zoology have again appended the following note 
