| OCR Text |
Show 1870.] MR. R. B. SHARPE ON ETHIOPIAN HIRUNDINIDEE. 307 occurrence of the bird on the St. Gothard, it is just possible that specimen may have been taken there, and that it may occur as an accidental visitor, since Mr. Howard Saunders (I. c.) has found an undoubted specimen of H. riocouri in the Museum at Catania. That the species is really an occasional migrant to the west, appears to me most probable, for the same reason that Chettusia leucura, another Egyptian bird, occurs in Malta; but I cannot but believe that the more common Hirundo rustica in the spring plumage, when the underparts are a very bright rust-colour, has often been mistaken for the true H. riocouri. If this really prove to be the case, the statement made by Professor Blasius, and reproduced by Dr. Bree, will require some modification. Its occurrence in Greece, where it is said to breed, appears to rest on pretty good authority ; but I should like to see specimens from that country. The types of Temminck's II. boissoneauti are stated by him to have come from Greece and Tripoli; and he gives the habitat of the bird as Andalucia and Greece, and probably the northern portion of Africa. I omitted to examine Temminck's types when at Leyden, but would suggest that, as in the case of the Tschagra Shrike (Telephonus cucullatus) the existence of the present species in Spain is imaginary. In Mr. George Robert Gray's ' Genera,' and in Mr. Bree's ' Birds of Europe,' this bird is said to be the Hirundo savignyi oi Leach. I cannot find the description. InTuckey's Expedition to the Congo (p. 407), the present species is stated to have been procured, and is included on this authority in Dr. Hartlaub's work on the ornithology of Western Africa. I much question the correct identification of the specimens, and have not included Congo in m y list of localities. Again, Mr. Cassin has stated that the Philadelphia Museum has a specimen from Monrovia, and also that D u Chaillu collected it on the River Camma. In both these instances I believe the full spring plumage of H. rustica to have been mistaken for H. cahirica. In conclusion, I beg leave to assert that I by no means wish to deny the occurrence of H. cahirica in any of the localities mentioned by various authors, but that at present the evidence does not satisfy me. I shall, however, be the first to retract m y views on receiving satisfactory information for the extension of the geographical distribution of this species of Swallow. The bird from Eastern Siberia mentioned by Pallas (Zoogr. Ross.- As. i. p. 530), and suggested by Prof. Schlegel as being probably the present species (Rev. Crit. p. xviii.), is the Hirundo horreorum of North America, of which I have specimens in m y collection from Lake Baikal. 3. HIRUNDO ANGOLENSIS. Hirundo angolensis, Bocage, Jorn. Acad. Lisb. 1868, p. 47; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 567, pl. xliii. ; Bocage, Jorn. Acad. Lisb. 1869, p. 339. Forehead, throat, and upper part of the breast deep brick-red ; entire upper surface rich steel-blue, having a greenish lustre in some lights; tail gradually forked, the two middle feathers steel-blue, the |
