Greater striped swallow  The greater striped swallow ("Cecropis cucullata") is a large swallow that is native to Africa south of the equator. The greater striped swallow was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his "Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux" from a specimen collected in the Cape of Good Hope district of South Africa. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the "Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle" which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name "Hirundo cucullata" in his catalogue of the "Planches Enluminées". The greater striped swallow is now one of nine species that are placed in the genus "Cecropis" that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1826. The species is monotypic and no subspecies are recognised. The name of the genus is from the Ancient Greek "Kekropis" "Athenian woman". The specific epithet "cucullata" is from the Late Latin "cucullatus" meaning "hooded". The greater striped swallow is long. It has dark blue upperparts with a pale orange rump and a chestnut crown, nape and sides of the head. The underparts and underwing coverts are creamy white with dark streaking, and the upper wings and underwing flight feathers are blackish-brown. The blackish tail has very long outer feathers; these are slightly longer in the male than the female. Juveniles are duller and browner, with less contrast and shorter outer tail feathers. The flight is slow and buoyant, and the call is a twittering "chissick". This species can be distinguished from the smaller lesser striped swallow, "Hirundo abyssinica", in that the latter species has heavier and darker underparts striping, a deeper red rump, and rufous rather than buffy ear coverts. The lesser striped swallow also prefers less open habitats. It breeds in southern Africa, mainly in South Africa, Namibia and southern Zimbabwe. It is migratory wintering further north in Angola, Tanzania and southern Democratic Republic of the Congo.