found in Eastern Bengal. 85 



in various parts of Eastern Bengal. I never found that they 

 bred there ; and it was very seldom that I observed them far 

 from Dacca^ and there only in very scanty numbers. I saw 

 them at Mymensing, the next district to Dacca^ once, but 

 only for one day. 



They visited Dacca regularly, certainly twice every year, 

 from the end of April to June, and again after the rains. 

 They seemed only to stay a few weeks, and then to disappear. 

 For months I had been looking out for them in vain; of a 

 sudden they would appear in considerable numbers, and then 

 disappear as suddenly. 



I would ask if such short visits of flocks of Swallows from 

 time to time to particular localities is a fact that has been 

 remarked by ornithologists, and, if so, how it is to be ac- 

 counted for. So far as I can tell from my own observations 

 for many years, and from questioning all persons I met who 

 observed birds, and from Jerdon's ignorance of the bird at 

 first, these birds have only been noticed in considerable 

 numbers in the neighbourhood of Dacca, where they are not 

 known to breed. Their absence from the rest of Eastern 

 Bengal seems remarkable. 



There is aiiuther small white-bellied Swallow which is to 

 be met with not very far from Dacca. This bird I took to 

 be Hirimdo domicola, Avhich Jerdon calls the Neilgherry 

 Swallow. I saw this bird several years running at Sylhet 

 in the summer, and also in other districts bordering the 

 Megna in Eastern Bengal. Jerdon does not mention these 

 countries as its habitat ; but I have remarked it now and 

 then at all seasons of the year. 



A few miles below Dacca, on the left bank of the river, 

 stand, or rather stood (for they have lately been carried away 

 by the encroachments of the river and by cyclones), two pic- 

 turesque old Hindoo temples or muths, of squat ugly shape, 

 covered with those parasitical trees which plant themselves on 

 ruined walls ; there is a bridge close by called Pagla pool, or 

 the " madman's bridge.^' In the early rains it was a most 

 interesting sight for an ornithologist to stand on this bridge 

 and observe the birds which made use of these ruined towers as 



