“Head and rump white; back, tail, wings, and side, black; beneath white; upper tail-coverts black; under tail-coverts white. About the size of A. pelasgia, and in its mode of flight the same.”
“This beautiful Swift I saw whilst encamped at Inscription Rock, New Mexico. Being on the top of this high rock at the time without my gun, I was unable to procure specimens. I had a fair view of the birds at this time, as they flew close to me. I descended immediately and procured my gun, but the birds by this time flew too high for me to be able to procure a shot at them. They were breeding in the crevices of the rocks. I was still in hopes of seeing them again along our route, but I had not that pleasure, it being the only place that I have observed them.”
This bird has not been noticed since the publication of the above description by Dr. Woodhouse.
4. Hirundo cinerea. “The Ash-bellied Swallow.” Ord, in Guthrie’s Geography, II. p. 317. (1815.)
This name occurs, without a description, in Mr. Ord’s Catalogue of the Birds of North America, in Guthrie’s Geography, as above.
Hirundo cinerea, Gmelin, is a native of Tahiti and of the Marquesas Islands, but has not to our knowledge ever been detected on the continent of North America. It belongs to the genus Collocalia, Gray. The Bank Swallow (Cotyle riparia) also was named Hirundo cinerea by Vieillot, but is given in Mr. Ord’s list as distinct from the present.
5. Hirundo rupestris. “The Rock Swallow.” Ord, in Guthrie’s Geog., II. p. 317. (1815.)
This name also occurs in Mr. Ord’s Catalogue, cited above. Hirundo rupestris, Scopoli, inhabits Europe and Asia, but we have never been informed of its appearance in America. It is a Cotyle.
We have now given all the species of Swallows known or supposed to inhabit the continent of America, north of Mexico.
As stated in a preceding page, Swallows are found in all countries except the Arctic regions, and are, so far as known to naturalists, birds of very considerable similarity of habits and of general characters. The various groups usually regarded as sub-families and genera are perhaps as easily distinguished in this family as in any other of the entire class of Birds, and it is one in which it is remarkable that almost every country produces species which belong to the genus (Hirundo) which is the type and apparently primary form of the family, besides forms peculiarly its own.