342 Mr. H. Seebohm on the Birds of Natal ^c. 



species, some of them congeneric, busily engaged in the 

 duties of incubation, but themselves looking on with ab- 

 solute indifference. In addition to the Plovers and Sand- 

 pipers already mentioned, and the Swallow, many other 

 species, such as the Swift [Cypselus apus), the Willow Wren 

 {Phylloscopus trochilus), the Sedge Warbler [Acrocephalus 

 phragniitis) , the Great Sedge Warbler [Acrocephalus tur- 

 doides), which breed in Northern Europe and North-western 

 Asia, cross the tropics to enjoy a second summer in the Trans- 

 vaal, Natal, and other parts of South Africa. The fact that 

 these birds which spend the summer in Europe are found in 

 South Africa during the South-African breeding-season, has 

 given rise to the legend that some birds breed twice in the year 

 — in June in Europe, and in December in South Africa. It 

 is very difficult to prove a negative, but when the evidence of 

 these alleged cases of double breeding is carefully examined, 

 it always proves to be unsatisfactory. Andersson, in his 

 ' Birds of Damara-Land,' remarks of Hirundo rustica that 

 it breeds in that country ; but there can be little doubt 

 that the Swallow which he supposed to be our species was 

 the White-throated Swallow {Hirundo alhigularis) , which 

 he does not mention, and which he probably mistook for 

 the female of our bird. His further remark that in con- 

 sequence of the scarcity of houses it breeds in rocks and 

 trees, adds still more doubt to the accuracy of his observations. 

 I have seen the Swallow breeding under overhanging 

 cliffs in the Dobrudscha, but I never heard of its having 

 been found nesting in a tree. Nordmann^s Pratincole 

 {Glareola melanoptera) is also stated, on the authority of 

 Mrs. Barber, to breed in South Africa ; but as this bird and 

 the Wattled Starling [Dilophus carunculatus) are both 

 known in that country as the Small Locust-bird, it seems 

 very probable that the two species have been confused to- 

 gether either by Mrs. Barber or by Mr. Layard. It is a 

 significant fact that the Layard collection of eggs in the 

 Museum at Cape Town, which is a very good one, reflecting 

 great credit on the energy of the collector, does not profess 

 to contain an African egg of the Pratincole. The Quail 



