MAY., ?9o2. [ THE CONDOR 7 x The Western Barn Swallow BY JOSE?H ORXNNELL. Hirundo erythrogastra paltoefl new name. ]Yirundo horreorum BAXRD, Pac. R. R. Rep, IX, I858 , 3o8, part (notes large size of specimen from Sacramento); BAIRD, Rev. Am. Bds,, May ?865, 294, part (attention called to large size of specimens from Fort Rae and New Mexico). ]]irundo eryff?rogaslra CovEs, Bds. Col. Val., ?878, 4o7, part (synonymy). C'helidon erythrogastra NELSON, Rep. Nat. Hist. Coil. Alaska, ?887, x97 (Gmelin's name thought to apply to the Barn Swallow because only this species has been found at Unalaska). t-Iirundo erylhrogaslra unalaschkensis (not the IYirundo unalaschkensis of Gmelin, which seems to be not now identifiable) W. PALMER, Fur Seals & Fur Seal Ids. N. Pac., Pt. IiI, I899 , 422 (characterization of an Alaskan race: large size, and great extent of white markings on tail); ALLEN, Auk XVIII, April x9ot , x76 (republication of description, with critical re- marks); Bxs?ov, N. Am. Fauna No. x9, Oct. x9oo , 87 (deep coloration of Alaskan specimens noted). IYirundo erythrogasler GRINNELL, CONDOR iII, Jan. x9ox, 23 icritical: Alaskan specimensstated to not differ from "U. S. specimens" [= skins from California] ). SvBSv. C?AR.--Similar to Hiruhdo erylhrogaslra erythrogaslra of Eastern North America, but colors beneath deeper and the frontal chestnut band broader and darker; wing and tail some- what longer and bill smaller. TYVE--? ad.; No. 5094 , Coil. J. Grinnell; Amaknak Id., Unalaska Harbor, Alaska; June 23, x9oo; Collected by R. C. McGregor. MEASUREMENTS OF TvvE--Wing, x22 mm; tail, xox; from tip of shortest tail feather [o tip of longest (that is, "forking"), 48: culmeu, 6.5; bill from nostril, 5.5- COLOaATXON OV TvvE--Foreneck, rich hazel; rest of lower parts including under wing and tail coverts, uniform cinnamon-rufous; forehead, deep chestnut, forming a band 8 min. wide abruptly defined against the metallic marine blue of rest of upper surface; wings and tail black- ish glossed with greenish; inner webs of outer five tail feathers, each marked with an oblique white spot, the outer one .being the largest and following the white shaft distally to ?ithin 40 min. of its tip? RANGE--Western North America, summering from southern California north to Kotzebue Sound, Alaska; west to Unalaska and east to and including the Rocky Mountains. R?AaI?s--The form here characterized exhibits a significant tendency to- ward the iYirundo tytleri J?ai)o? of Kamtschatka (See S?'?J?g?a, Bull. 29, U.S. N.M., x885, ?69). This tendency reaches its extreme in examples from south- western Alaska. Perhaps continuity in the range of a stock form of Barn Swal- lows once existed by the way of the Aleutian, Copper and Behring Islands to Kamtschatka. Divergence of xnigration routes may have caused specific separa- tion of the two initial races. l?rirt?ndo t),tleri winters in Southern Asia (India, Burmah, etc ) while At. e. paltoefl passes south on the American side to Central America and beyond. /tirundo erythrog?astrapalmeri is named for William Palmer of Washington, whose paper on the "Avifauna of the Pribilof Islands" is a model of painstaking work. GENERAL NEWS NOTES. Wm. H. Kobbe of San Francisco is taking a course in forestry at the Biltmore (N. C.) For- est School. W. E. Loucks, a well known ornithologist of Peoria, Ills. has b'een spending the spring months in Southern California. Mr. Joseph Mailliard of San Geronimo is rusticating at Santa Barbara during the spring months, where he will collect locally. W. Otto Emerson writes us of a rufous-crowned sparrow captured by his cat in his garden at Haywards, Cal. on March x7, x9o2.
