The Birds of Son/h Africa 239 



they might at least have been distinguished by not bearing numbers 

 like the authenticated feathered inhabitants of South Africa. 

 There are, nevertheless, some well-known species of other countries 

 which we are considerably surprised to learn are likewise met with 

 in the region treated of by the author ; for instance, a well-known 

 Indian crested cuckoo (Coccystes melanoleucus), in addition to two 

 exclusively African congeners ; and, still more remarkable, a species 

 of titmouse (Parus cinereus), which likewise inhabits the Himma- 

 layas, the Nilgiris, and other mountains of Southern India, those 

 of Ceylon, of Java, and of the Philippines — a truly remarkable 

 range of distribution ; but the most extraordinary instance of the 

 kind would have been that of the North American cliff swallow 

 (Hirundo lunifrons), the very singular discovery of which, or of a 

 species barely distinguishable from it, in South Africa, may be 

 given in the author's own words : — 



" Procured in the neighbourhood of Middlebury, by Mr A. V. Jackson, 

 building in companies under rocks. I was first led to a knowledge of this 

 species, by observing an unusual appearance on an overhanging rock, photo- 

 graphed during the journey of H.R.H. Prince Alfred through South Africa in 

 i860. On applying a strong magnifying power to the picture, I distinctly 

 made out that the appearance consisted of a cluster of birds' nests. I at once 

 concluded that they were constructed by some species of swallow unknown to 

 me, and requested my zealous contributor, Mr Jackson, to look well after them, 

 if ever he found himself in the neighbourhood. This he has done, and tells me 

 that he counted about twenty nests, under a rock, clustered together ; he also 

 obtained the only specimen which I have seen. Dr Hartlaub, to whom this 

 specimen was submitted, states that it is a young bird of the American Hirundo 

 lunifrons ; a species which has of late years been extending its migrations from 

 its real habitation in a most remarkable manner." 



Quite recently we learn that Dr Hartlaub has come to consider 

 this South African bird to be distinct from its American congener, 

 as might well have been suspected, and he now designates it H. 

 Alfredi, in compliment to H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh.* 

 Specimens, also, of the supposed Cypselus melba and C. apus of 

 South Africa were not long ago exhibited at a meeting of the 

 Zoological Society, where they were considered to be distinct from 

 the two corresponding swifts of the northern hemisphere, and they 

 must now bear the names C. gutturalis, Vieillot, and C. barbatus, 

 Sclater (ex Temminck, m.s.). 



* A coloured figure of Hirundo Alfredi is supplied in the "Ibis" for April 

 of the current year, with some further particulars respecting it. 



