A Manual of Philippine Birds

by Richard C. McGregor

Bill weak, short, flat, and broad, the edges smooth; a small notch near end of upper mandible; culmen nearly straight, except at tip; nostrils exposed; rictal bristles small and weak; wings long and narrow; primaries nine, the first slightly longer than the second; secondaries very short; tail more or less forked; tarsus and toes slender, moderate in size, usually unfeathered.

Genera.

• a¹. Toes and tarsus thickly covered with short feathers. Chelidonaria (p. [424])
• a². Toes, and usually the tarsus, entirely devoid of feathers.
  • b¹. Upper parts dull earthy brown with no gloss; tail but slightly forked. Riparia (p. [425])
  • b². Upper parts glossed with green or steel-blue; tail deeply forked, and sometimes very long. Hirundo (p. [426])

Genus CHELIDONARIA Reichenow, 1889.

Plumage of upper parts black, glossed with blue, bases of the feathers white; a white band across rump; tail nearly square; tarsi and toes thickly clothed with short feathers.

387. CHELIDONARIA DASYPUS (Bonaparte).

SIBERIAN SWALLOW.[52]

• Chelidon dasypus Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Avium (1850), 1, 343; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1885), 10, 91.
• Chelidonaria dasypus Sharpe, Hand-List (1901), 3, 188; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1903), 3, 230; McGregor, Bull. Philippine Mus. (1904), 4, 33; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 69.

Calayan (McGregor). Japan; Borneo in winter.

“Adult male (type of species).—General color above dull purplish blue, with white bases to the feathers; wing-coverts and quills blackish with a slight blue gloss; rump and upper tail-coverts pure white, with narrow dusky shaft-lines; the long upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers blackish with a faint blue gloss; tail very slightly forked; head like the back; lores and feathers below the eye black; ear-coverts dull purplish blue, as also the sides of neck and sides of upper breast, the latter slightly mottled with white bases; fore part of cheeks and under surface of body creamy buff, washed with smoky brown on the breast and flanks, with a little purer white on the fore neck and abdomen; under tail-coverts smoky brown, broadly edged with whitish, the long coverts blacker with broad whitish edging; axillars and under wing-coverts dark brown, the small coverts near edge of wing edged with pale smoky brown; quills dull ashy brown below. Length, 117; wing, 104; tail, 26; culmen, 7; tarsus, 12.” (Sharpe.)