ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW.
Hirundo serripennis.
On the afternoon of the 20th of October 1819, I was walking along the shores of a forest-margined lake, a few miles from Bayou Sara, in pursuit of some Ibises, when I observed a flock of small Swallows bearing so great a resemblance to our common Sand Martin, that I at first paid little attention to them. The Ibises proving too wild to be approached, I relinquished the pursuit, and being fatigued by a long day’s exertion, I leaned against a tree, and gazed on the Swallows, wishing that I could travel with as much ease and rapidity as they, and thus return to my family as readily as they could to their winter quarters. How it happened I cannot now recollect, but I thought of shooting some of them, perhaps to see how expert I might prove on other occasions. Off went a shot, and down came one of the birds, which my dog brought to me between his lips. Another, a third, a fourth, and at last a fifth were procured. The ever-continuing desire of comparing one bird with another led me to take them up. I thought them rather large, and therefore placed them in my bag, and proceeded slowly toward the plantation of William Perry, Esq., with whom I had for a time taken up my residence.
The bill and feet of the Swallows were pure black, and both, I thought, were larger than in the Sand Martin; but differences like these I seldom hold in much estimation, well knowing from long experience, that individuals of any species may vary in these respects. I was more startled when I saw not a vestige of the short feathers usually found near the junction of the hind toe with the tarsus in the common species, and equally so when I observed that the bird in my hand had a nearly even tail, with broad rounded feathers, the outer destitute of the narrow margin of white. At this time my observations went no farther.
Doubts have been expressed by learned ornithologists respecting the identity of the Common Sand Martin of America and that of Europe. Some of them in their treatises write Hirundo riparia? or Cotyle riparia? which in my opinion is foolish, especially if no reason be given for appending so crooked a character. About two years ago, my friend the Rev. John Bachman, sent me four Swallow’s eggs accompanied with a letter, in which was the following notice:—“Two pairs of Swallows resembling the Sand Martin, have built their nests for two years in succession in the walls of an unfinished brick house at Charleston, in the holes where the scaffoldings had been placed. It is believed here that there are two species of these birds.” The eggs which my friend sent me differ greatly from those of our Common Sand Martin, being so much longer, larger, and more pointed, that I might have felt inclined to suppose them to belong to the European Swift, Cypselus murarius. But of the birds which had laid them no particular account was given. Time has passed; and during the while I have been anxious to meet again with such Swallows as I had shot near Bayou Sara, as well as to determine whether our Common Sand Martin be the same as that of Europe. And now, Reader, I am at last able to say, that the Sand Martin or Bank Swallow, Hirundo riparia, is common to Europe and America; and further, that a species, confounded with it in the latter country, is perfectly distinct.
I perhaps should never have discovered the differences existing between these species had I not been spurred by the remarks of Vieillot, who, in expressing his doubts as to their identity, and perhaps holding in his hand the bird here spoken of, says that the tarsus is much larger than in the European Sand Martin. I have been surprised that these doubts did not awaken in others a desire to inquire into the subject. Had this been done, however, I should probably have lost an opportunity of adding another new species to those to whose nomination I can lay claim, not to speak of such as, although well known to me previous to their having been published by others, I have lost the right of naming because I had imparted my knowledge of them to those who were more anxious of obtaining this sort of celebrity. I have now in my possession one pair of these Swallows procured by myself in South Carolina during my last visit to that State. Of their peculiar habits I can say nothing; but, owing to their being less frequent than the Sand Martin, I am inclined to believe that their most habitual residence may prove to be far to the westward, perhaps in the valleys of the Columbia River.
I regret that I have not figured this species, though it would have proved exceedingly difficult to exhibit in an engraving the peculiar character presented by the outer quill, unless it were much magnified.
The specific characters of these two Swallows, so nearly allied, are as follows:—
Fig. 1.