拍品专文
Gould was indebted to the naturalist, Rev. Henry Baker Tristram (1822-1906) for the specimens in the illustration, which according to Gould, showed the red rump and strongly marked streaked breast characteristic of the ' Daurian Mosque Swallow'. The drawing of the retort shaped nest was adapted from the illustration published by P.S. Pallas in Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica, 1811.
Robert Swinhoe (1836-1877), Vice-Consul in Formosa (now Taiwan) described the red-rumped swallows nesting. 'On taking possession of our native house at Tamsuy [Tamsui], I observed a nest of the Swallow under the rafters of the central hall. It was exteriorly built of specks of mud, like the nests of Martins, but had a neck-like entrance, giving the whole the form of a French flask flattened against the roof; inside was amply lined with feathers. Pallas's figure gives a very good idea of its structure; the mouth however, does not always point upwards, but is adapted... to the shape of the spot in which it is placed. The pair to which the nest belonged returned at the close of March, and in April began to repair it... For the sake of science we let the birds have it all their own way, though they make a great mess about our small house, and nearly drove us wild with their loud discordant twittering.'
The swallow in the foreground is lifesize.
P.S. Pallas, Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica,1811, I, p.534, pl.30, fig.2.
DISTRIBUTION: Southern Palearctic, western and eastern Africa including western and central Ethiopia, southern and eastern Asia and Sri Lanka. Winters from Mediterranean east across southern Asia and south to tropical Africa
Robert Swinhoe (1836-1877), Vice-Consul in Formosa (now Taiwan) described the red-rumped swallows nesting. 'On taking possession of our native house at Tamsuy [Tamsui], I observed a nest of the Swallow under the rafters of the central hall. It was exteriorly built of specks of mud, like the nests of Martins, but had a neck-like entrance, giving the whole the form of a French flask flattened against the roof; inside was amply lined with feathers. Pallas's figure gives a very good idea of its structure; the mouth however, does not always point upwards, but is adapted... to the shape of the spot in which it is placed. The pair to which the nest belonged returned at the close of March, and in April began to repair it... For the sake of science we let the birds have it all their own way, though they make a great mess about our small house, and nearly drove us wild with their loud discordant twittering.'
The swallow in the foreground is lifesize.
P.S. Pallas, Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica,1811, I, p.534, pl.30, fig.2.
DISTRIBUTION: Southern Palearctic, western and eastern Africa including western and central Ethiopia, southern and eastern Asia and Sri Lanka. Winters from Mediterranean east across southern Asia and south to tropical Africa