362 Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 



ground, and built in a row. Convenient situations must have 

 been scarce there (it was near Kedesh); for we had to stoop 

 under the roof to draw water, and ahnost touched the nests with 

 our heads as we withdrew. 



Very distinct is that charming bird H. rufula, Temm., belong- 

 ing to a different group containing eight old-world species, which 

 has been separated by Bonaparte into a subgenus Cecropis. This 

 bird does not return to Palestine till the end of March. We 

 obtained our first specimens on the 28th. It then scatters itself 

 over the whole country, and in the warmer and more marshy 

 regions is the predominant species. It is a beautiful bird on 

 the wing, showing its chestnut collar and rump to great advan- 

 tage as it turns continually, flying much more slowly than the 

 common Swallow, and beating repeatedly over a more limited 

 extent of ground. Though feeding in flocks, I never knew this 

 swallow to breed in company ; and very rarely were two nests to 

 be found in one cave. The nest is a beautiful structure, composed 

 of the same materials as that of the House-Martin, but is invariably 

 attached to the flat surface of the underside of the roof of a cave 

 or vault. It is of the shape of a retort, with a bulb of the size of 

 a Thrush's nest, large and roomy, the neck or passage for en- 

 trance being sometimes a foot or more in length. The inside of the 

 clay chamber is warmly lined with feathers. Laborious as must be 

 the construction of this elaborate edifice, the little architects are 

 very fastidious, and frequently desert two or three half-finished 

 nests in succession, commencing a new one in the same cavern. 

 But after all they are sadly bullied. So tempting a domicile 

 invites unscrupulous vagrants; the Galilean Swift [Cypselus 

 affinis) assumes the rights and wrongs of the compound house- 

 holder and exercises the franchise of the nest, leaving the Swallow 

 to pay the rates. The Swift contracts the entrance by a case- 

 ment of feathers and gelatinous secretion, and then bids defiance 

 to the original landlord. Mr. Simpson found the Syrian Nut- 

 hatch indulging in similar acts of lawlessness in Greece. 

 When so treated the Swallow does not leave the cave, but 

 humbly sets to work to construct a new nest not far off. A 

 favourite breeding-place of H. rufula is under the arches of the 

 corridors of the Monastery on Mount Cai-mel. The eggs are 



