Description
Striated Swallow is 19 cm long with a deeply forked tail. It has blue upperparts other than a reddish collar (sometimes absent) and streaked chestnut rump. The face and underparts are white with heavy dark streaking. The wing are brown. The sexes are alike but juveniles are duller and browner, with a paler rump and shorter outer tail feathers.
There are four races:
- C. s. striolata breeds in Taiwan, The Philippines and Indonesia.
- C. s. mayri breeds from northeastern India to northwestern Myanmar. It has broader streaks than nominate striolata.
- C. s. stanfordi breeds from northeastern Myanmar to northern Thailand. It has broad streaks.
- C. s. vernayi breeds locally in western Thailand. It is more rufous below than the nominate race, and is only faintly streaked on the rump.
The contact call is pin, the alarm is chi-chi-chi, and the song is a soft twittering.
This species, particularly subspecies mayri is very similar to Red-rumped Swallow of the race japonicus, but is larger, more heavily streaked, and has a less distinct neck collar.
Read more about this topic: Striated Swallow
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“It [Egypt] has more wonders in it than any other country in the world and provides more works that defy description than any other place.”
—Herodotus (c. 484–424 B.C.)
“Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.”
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965)
“He hath achieved a maid
That paragons description and wild fame;
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)