CHÆTURA. Stephens. HIRUNDAPUS. Hodgson.
General characters similar to the last genus, but with the shafts of the
tail-feathers prolonged beyond the webs, and forming strong thorn-like
points; tarsi and toes naked; bill small, curved, wide at base; wings
long; tail usually short; legs short, rather slender; claws curved,
strong; general form plump and robust. Of this genus there are about
fifteen species, two only of which are known to inhabit the United
States, though several are natives of South America. Like the birds of
the preceding genus, they possess great rapidity of flight, and live in
similar situations.
1. Acanthylis pelasgia. (Linn.) The Chimney Bird. The American Swift.
Hirundo pelasgia. Linn., Syst. Nat. I. p. 345. (1766.)
Hirundo cerdo. Bartram, Trav., p. 292. (1791.) Barton, Frag., p.
18.
“Cypselus acutus. Temm., Mus. Lugd.” Bonap., Consp. Av., p. 64.
Vieill., Ois. d’Am., Sept. 1, pl. 33; Wilson, Am. Orn., V. pl. 39,
fig. 1; Aud., B. of Am., pl. 58, Oct. ed., I. pl. 44; Nat. Hist. N. Y.
Birds, pl. 27, fig. 58.
Wings very long, extending beyond the tail, flattened, somewhat
falcate; shafts of primaries rigid; tail short; exserted spines sharp,
elastic; tarsi and toes naked; entire plumage above and below
fuliginous brown, darkest on the upper parts, and with a slight
greenish lustre on the head and back (in mature specimens), much paler
on the throat and neck before; quills dark fuliginous; tail lighter;
spot in front of the eye black, a very narrow superciliary line
ashy-white; shafts and spines of the tail-feathers black; bill and
feet dark.
Dimensions. Total length, male, from tip of bill to end of tail, 4¾ to
5 inches; wing, 5¼; tail, 1¾ inches. Female very nearly the same.
Hab. Throughout North America. Canada (Dr. Hall); Florida (Mr.
Williams); Indiana (Dr. Haymond); Indian Territory, Texas, New Mexico,
California (Dr. Woodhouse).
The Chimney bird is abundant in all the States on the Atlantic, and,
according to Dr. Woodhouse, equally so in Texas. It possesses powers of
sustaining protracted and rapid flight, perhaps not equalled by any
other bird of North America, though characteristic in some measure of
all the birds of this family. In Europe, birds of genera nearly allied
to the present have received the name of “Swifts” from this fact.
2. Acanthylis Vauxii. (Townsend.) Vaux’s Swift.
Cypselus Vauxii. Towns., Jour. Acad., Philada., VIII. p. 148.
(1839.)
Not figured.
Smaller than the preceding, but very similar to it in form and general
appearance; wings very long, exceeding the tail, which is short;
exserted spines of the tail-feathers sharp, slender, and not so rigid
as in the preceding species; tarsi and toes rather slender, naked;
plumage above fuliginous brown, lighter on the rump and upper
tail-coverts, darker, and tinged with greenish on the head and back;
quills dark fuliginous, with a greenish lustre; tail lighter
fuliginous; under-parts pale fuliginous, nearly white on the throat,
darkest on the abdomen; shafts and spines of the tail-feathers black;
bill and feet dark.
Dimensions. Total length of skin, sex unknown, 4¼ inches; wing, 4½;
tail, 1½ inches.
Hab. Columbia River, Oregon (Dr. Townsend).
This species, though apparently totally distinct from the common Chimney
bird of the United States, has never been noticed since its discovery by
Dr. Townsend. It is probably a bird exclusively inhabiting the countries
west of the Rocky Mountains. The original specimen brought by Dr.
Townsend remains unique in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy.
The name of this species was given in honor of Mr. William S. Vaux, of
this city, and is a just compliment to one of the most active and
valuable members of the Academy.
B.
OBSCURE AND DOUBTFUL SPECIES OF THIS FAMILY.
1. Hirundo unalaschkensis. Gm., Syst. Nat. I. p. 1025. (1788.)
Hirundo aoonalaschkensis. Lath., Ind. Orn., II. p. 577. (1790.)
Originally described by Latham from a specimen in the Leverian Museum,
as follows:—
“Length four inches and a half; bill very short, dusky; the plumage
above dull black, without gloss; beneath and sides of the head dusky ash
color, the last darkest; rump dirty white; tail forked, each feather
round at the end; legs dusky. Inhabits Aoonalashka.” Gm., Syn. II. p.
571.
This species is unknown to ornithologists of the present day, and from
the above description and the evident similarity of the bird to other
small species of this family, would not be recognized without
difficulty, unless obtained in the locality as given. It appears to
belong to the genus _Collocalia_, Gray, a very remarkable group of small
Swallows, that inhabit caves, and are found in several islands in the
Pacific Ocean. A species of this genus is the Esculent Swallow of
authors (_Collocalia esculenta_), the nests of which are so highly
esteemed as an article of food by the Chinese, and are the principal
constituent in the somewhat celebrated “Bird’s-nest soup,” a prominent
feature in Chinese entertainments. It is probable, too, that the nests
of other species of these birds are used for the same purpose.
No species of the genus alluded to has been discovered on the continent
of America, nor in either of the American islands, except the above.
2. Hirundo phenicephala. Rafinesque, Annals of Nature, p. 4.
(Lexington, Kentucky, 1820.)
“Head scarlet; back grey; belly white; bill and feet black. A fine and
rare Swallow, seen only once by Mr. Audubon, near Hendersonville, in
Kentucky; it must have been a wanderer, and is probably a native of
Louisiana or Mexico.”
“Head scarlet”—enough said; Professor Rafinesque brings our
ornithological ideas to a stand immediately. We never heard of a Swallow
with the head of that color, exactly. But as Mr. Audubon’s name is
brought in as authority, we think it possible that the bird alluded to
in this description may have been a straggling specimen of a South
American species, which has the head of a rufous color (_Cortyle
fucata_, Temm., Pl. Col. 161, fig. 1). Rafinesque apparently gave his
description and name without ever having seen the bird, or made further
inquiry, and probably misunderstood or partly forgot the statement of
Mr. Audubon respecting the color of the head.
Several instances of South American birds having been captured in the
United States have come to our knowledge. We ought to have said, though,
previously, that many more South American birds inhabit Mexico than are
recorded in the books. Several specimens of _Crotophaga sulcirostra_
have come under our notice, the last one of which was shot on an island
in the Delaware, opposite to the northern portion of this city. Its
plumage was perfectly mature and uninjured, showing evidently that it
had never been caged.
3. Acanthylis saxatilis. Woodhouse, Sitgreave’s Report of an
Expedition down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers, Zoology, p. 64
(Washington, 1853).
“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.
The types of great groups apparently more pre-eminently characterize the
ornithology of Europe than that of any other division of the globe. In
other words, Europe appears to produce the greatest number of species of
birds exhibiting the fullest development of the especial characters of
the groups to which they belong. It is very remarkable, too, that
species are found almost throughout the world slightly aberrating, as it
were, from European forms, or as though a typical form was produced with
a greater or less degree of imperfection. Of this description of birds,
the various species nearly allied to the House Swallow of Europe
(_Hirundo rustica_), are a striking illustration. The American _Hirundo
rufa_, and several Asiatic and African species, are only distinguished
from that bird by characters of inferior value in specific
identification. Australia, too, produces species, which, though
apparently farther removed, are still similar. There are many other
European birds which appear to occupy the same relative positions. The
Goatsucker, Raven, Crow, Jay, and Peregrine Falcon, are instances. Of
the European Conisostral birds, nearly every species has nearly allied
forms in other regions.
In connection, however, with this subject, there are two considerations
by no means to be lost sight of: Firstly, the extent to which the entire
science of ornithology may be regarded as having been derived from
European birds; those having been studied, and ornithological science
being in some measure an induction from them by the fathers and founders
of this branch of Zoology. Secondly, whether in reality the production
of the higher developments in birds is not peculiar to the western
portions of the two great hemispheres, at least in the northern regions
of these divisions of the globe. We regard it as evidently the case in
the Old World, and not less so in America. That the ornithology of
western North America produces the highest developments of forms in this
class of animals that are to be found on this continent, we think fully
demonstrable. But at present we regard it as true that Europe produces
marked ornithological types of divisions strictly natural.
There are about one hundred known species of Swallows, of which
eighty-five are in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy. The South
American birds of this family, for the greater part, belong to genera
represented in North America. Of the genus _Progne_ there are several
species peculiar to that portion of this continent, several of which
possess habits and manners very similar to those of the Purple Martin.
The same may be said of several species of _Acanthylis_, two or three of
which considerably resemble our Chimney Bird. Of the Bank Swallows
(_Cotyle_), there are also several South American species.