| OCR Text |
Show 294 MR. R. B. SHARPE ON ETHIOPIAN HIRUNDINIDEE. [May 1 2, on the extremities of the quills ; tail brownish black, also slightly glossed with blue ; a patch of feathers in front of the eye pale sienna; cheeks, ear-coverts, and sides of the neck dark blue; chin white, throat tinged with sienna and covered with little black spots, below this a blackish band marked with whitish ; under surface of the body white, washed on the upper part of the breast and on the flanks with sienna, a few scattered black spots on the breast; under tail-coverts and vent pale rufous, some of the former entirely black, and the others rufous with a blackish spot. Total length 5*9 inches ; of bill from front 0*4, from gape 0*6 ; wing 4*5 ; tail 2*1; tarsus 0*5, middle toe 0*45, hind toe 0*2. Hab. Middleburg, Cape Colony (Jackson, Layard) ; Transvaal (Ayres). The exact locality of the specimens originally described by Prof. Sundevall is not given; but, as they were collected by Wahlbeig, it is most probable that they came from Caffraria or Natal. I had for a long time been puzzled as to what the true Hirundo spilodera of Sundevall really was; and I was therefore delighted to find at Leyden one of the typical specimens collected by Wahlberg and received in exchange from the Stockholm Museum. I at once saw that the lately described Hirundo alfredi of Hartlaub was identical, as any one will admit who compares the two diagnoses. That of Prof. Sundevall is given in the ' (Efversigt' of the Stockholm Academy ; and as this work is often inaccessible to the working ornithologist, I reproduce his description here verbatim, merely adding that to the student of African ornithology the paper by the learned Professor is one of the highest interest, as it contains an account of Wahlberg's ornithological discoveries in Southern Africa. A set of the ' GZfversigt' is in the Society's library. The following is Sundevall's description (/. ci) :- " H I R U N D O SPILODERA, n. sp. Fusca, dorso ceeruleo-nitido, albo vario ; uropygio crissoque fulvis, gutture pectoreque antico fulvis nigro maculatis. Cauda fusca, immaculata, tantum leviter emarginata, pennis obtusis. Caudce tectrices maximce nigrce. Lor a fulva. Nares rotundatee. Ala 112, tars. 12; cauda 58." This, placed side by side with the diagnosis of Hirundo alfredi, leaves no doubt as to the identity of the two birds. The description given by me is taken from the afore-mentioned specimen in the Leyden Museum, which is a male from Caffraria (Wahlberg). Mr. Gurney is no douht right in supposing that the bird figured in the ' Ibis' is an adult; but the plate, obliterating as it does all trace of the peculiar striped appearance of the back, destroys the identity of the species. In order to make assurance doubly sure, I wrote to m y friend Dr. Tristram, who very kindly sent me for examination the type of Hirundo alfredi, so that I have now carefully examined the typical specimens of both Hirundo spilodera and H. alfredi, and am satisfied of the complete identity of the two species. |
