Tough to Swallow

A little pedantry is good for the soul, so let me offer an observation on what has become an irksome thorn in my mind’s side: the misuse of the word “hirundine.”

More and more I find birders reluctant to say “swallows” or “swallows and martins,” reaching instead for the Latinate “hirundine.” To my mind, there’s no reason not to write and speak English, but if you need to sound learned, at least be learned. “Hirundine” is an adjectival noun formed from the genus name Hirundo, and thus refers only to the swallows in that genus–when a North American birder claims to have seen a mixed flock of “hirundines,” she has had a spectacular sighting indeed, since only one species has ever been recorded on the continent. A mixed flock of hirundines is possible only in the African and Australasian regions, where “our” familiar Barn Swallow occurs alongside a varying selection of a dozen congeners.

What a European or American birder more likely means is that he has seen a flock of hirundinids. That is the adjectival noun derived from the family name Hirundinidae, and it includes all the swallows and martins in the world. A mixed flock of hirundinids is a fine thing on a summer’s day, and I look forward to sorting through one with you soon. Just don’t call them “hirundines,” please.

A blurry Gray-breasted Martin– a wonderful tropical hirundinid, but most decidedly not a hirundine.