Linnaeus, even in his latest publication, placed it in the genus Hirundo; but the interleaved and annotated copies of his Systema naturae in the Linnean Society's library show the species marked for separation and insertion in the Order Grallae - Pratincola trachelia being the name by which he had meant to designate it in any future edition.
It was only when, after a close examination of the sternal apparatus of one hundred and thirty species, which he carefully described, that he arrived (pp. 177-183) at the conclusion - astonishing to us who know of L'Herminier's previous results - that the sternum of birds cannot be used as a help to their classification on account of the egregious anomalies that would follow the proceeding - such anomalies, for instance, as the separation of Cypselus from Hirundo and its alliance with Trochilus, and the grouping of Hirundo and Fringilla together.
Ducks and geese frequent it in the spring and fall, the white-bellied swallows (Hirundo bicolor) skim over it, and the peetweets (Totanus macularius) "teeter" along its stony shores all summer.
Barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) were hunted by a Sparrow hawk (Accipiter nisus).