CHERRIE: ORNITHOLOGY OF THE ORINOCO REGION. l6l 
a sign of the dusky or blackish spot at the tip of the longer under 
tail-coverts while in the other there is a small dusky spot near the tip 
of one web only. The outer web of the outer primaries of these 
juvenile birds is wider than in adults and the recurved tips to the 
barbs are scarcely evident. The plumage above resembles that of 
the adults, but the feathers of the back are narrowly edged with buff. 
The pale rufous or buffy tips to the greater wing-coverts form a 
decided band on the wing, and there are broad tips and edgings to the 
tertials. Below, the breast and sides are washed with pale rufous, 
paler than that on the throat. The centre of the white belly is 
washed with pale primrose yellow. An adult male taken at Las 
Barrancas seems to approach ruficolHs rtificollis in the less evident paler 
rump and in the somewhat deeper rufous of the throat. 
Diplochelidon' melanoleuca (W'ied). 
Hirundo melanoleuca Wied, Reise. Bras. I. 1820. p. 342 
Atticora melanoleuca Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 15. 
Common along the middle stretches of the river and rarely seen 
far from the river bank. 
In life the eye is blackish ; bill and feet black. 
I found this species breeding at Caicara during February and 
March, -1898. The nests were placed far back in crevices between 
the rocks of a long low rocky peninsula which extends far out into 
the river, and was less than 2 m. above the surface of the river at 
that time. During the rainy season it would be many feet sub- 
merged. The nests were slight affairs made up of a small quantity 
of soft dead grasses lined with soft feathers. The eggs are a delicate 
pure white. 
This species played an important part in an interesting spectacle 
that I witnessed, on the evening of the 19th of July, 1898, half way 
between Caicara and Altagracia. I had made my canoe fast in a tree 
top, above one of the many submerged islands that are so common in 
the Orinoco, at that season of the year. As a storm was gathering 
and it was near sun-down, we were too far from either shore to 
attempt to reach solid ground for a camp. But the bird drama I wit- 
nessed that evening amply repaid me for the night spent in the tree 
tops. Just before darkness I noted immense numbers of Progne chaly- 
ol. Soc. Wash.. XVI. 1903. p. 106. (Type Hirundo melanoleuca 
