chi;rrie;: ornithology of the Orinoco re:gion. 159 
Key to the Species and Subspieces of Hirundinidae. 
Nostrils rounded, opening upward, and under parts not entirely white; no 
white spots on inner webs of rectrices. 
. Size large; wing more than 120 mm. 
c. Chin and upper throat nearly uniform with breast. Entire upper 
parts, in adults, glossy blue black, in young blackish, washed with 
glossy steel bluish ; lateral rectrices narrowed terminally. 
d. Under parts glossy steel blue like upper parts (adult male), or else 
feathers of throat and chest edged with paler, giving a squamate 
appearance (female and young) Progne subis subis. 
d'. Under parts not glossy steel blue like upper parts, and throat and 
chest feathers without prominent paler margins — not squamate. . . Progne ckalybea chalybea. 
c'. Chin and upper throat much paler than breast. Upper parts brown- 
ish grey with a faint gloss; lateral rectrices more rounded terminally. Phaeoprogne lapera imma' 
'. Smaller; wing less than 115 mm. 
c. Tail less than half as long as wing. 
c'. Tail half as long or more than half as long as wing Pygochelidon ' cyanoteuca. - 
d. Under tail-coverts white (with blackish subterminal spots in 
same) and throat or crown, or both, rufous or tawny. 
e. Both crown and throat tawny or rufous A hpochelidon ^ fucala * 
e'. Throat only, tawny or rufous; outer primary- roughened by 
recurved tips to the barbs (not apparent in young) Slelgidopteryx ruficollis 
d'. Under tail-coverts black, blackish or brown with slight purplish 
wash, no rufous or tawny on either throat or crown; tail 
rather deeply forked. 
e. In adults a blue black band across breast, throat and belly 
white Diplochelidon melanoleiica. ^ 
e'. Under parts glossy blue-black (like the back) with a band of 
white across the breast Atticora fasciata. 
Nostrils longitudinal, opening laterally, at lower edge of nasal fossa; under 
parts white, or rectrices marked with white spots on inner webs near tips. 
, Rectrices with white spot on inner webs Hirundo erythrogaster. ^ 
'. Rectrices not marked w-ith white spots near tips on inner webs Iridoprocne albiventer. 
Progne subis subis (Linnaeus). 
Hirundo subis L., Syst. Nat. ed. lO I. 1758. p. 192. 
Progne subis Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 14. 
Not met with on the Orinoco proper but Klages sent examples 
to the Tring Museum that were collected at Suapure on the Caura 
River in March and April as recorded by Berlepsch and Hartert. 
^PygocheUdon, Baird. Review Am. Birds. 1865. pp. 270. 30S. 308 (Type. Hirundo cyanoleuca Vieillot). 
^While I find no record of this species having been taken in the region under consideration further 
collecting will doubtless discover it as it has occurred at La Guayra, Venezuela, on the Island of Trinidad 
and at several points in British Guiana. 
^Alopochelidon. Ridgway. Birds N. & M. Amer., III. 1904. p. 26 (Type, Hirundo fucala Temmnick). 
of its! 
^I have not sufficient material to properly characterize the young of this form, but from specimens 
before me I am led to think that in juvenal plumage the throat is greyish brown, with the feathers narrowly 
margined with pale greyish; breast, belly and shorter under-tail coverts white; longer tail coverts brown 
washed with purpUsh blue near tips. 
^This species has been recorded from the island of Curacao, from Barbados, from Trinidad, and from 
several points in British Guiana, but there are as yet apparently no records for the Orinoco region. 
