Hirundo chinensis Gray, in Hardwick's Illustr. Ind. Zool. (1830),
1, pl. 35, fig. 3.
Cotile sinensis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1885), 10, 104;
Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 236 (nesting).
Clivicola sinensis Sharpe, Hand-List (1901), 3, 190; Oates and
Reid, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1903), 3, 232; McGregor and Worcester,
Hand-List (1901), 190.
Luzon (Whitehead, Mearns, Curran). Formosa and southern China;
in winter to Indian Peninsula and Indo-Chinese countries.
Adult.--Above light earthy brown, lighter on the rump; wings and tail
darker brown; chin, throat, breast, sides of head and of neck pale
gray; abdomen, vent, sides, and under tail-coverts white. Length,
about 100; wing, 89; tail, 40; depth of fork, 5; bill from nostril,
4; tarsus, 9.
Young.--"The young bird has all the feathers of the upper plumage and
wings broadly margined with rufous, and the chin, throat, and breast
are pale rufous." (Oates.)
The Chinese bank swallow is considerably smaller and has a less
deeply forked tail than the preceding species. Whitehead found it
fairly common in northern Luzon and observed numbers entering their
nesting-holes in the high banks of the Abra River in February.
Genus HIRUNDO Linnæus, 1758.
Plumage blackish above, glossed with blue or green, and the feathers
with white bases; no white band on rump; tail deeply forked, in some
species the outermost feathers attenuated and extending beyond the
closed wings.
Species.
a1. Under parts not streaked with blackish lines; rump uniform with
the back.
b1. Chin and throat chestnut, but the fore breast crossed by a more
or less complete band of glossy black.
c1. Dark pectoral band complete. ... rustica (p. 426)
c2. Dark pectoral band more or less interrupted in the
middle. ... gutturalis (p. 427)
b2. Chin, throat, and fore breast entirely chestnut with no blackish
color on breast. ... javanica (p. 428)
a2. Under parts conspicuously streaked with blackish; rump
chestnut. ... striolata (p. 429)