Ornithology of the Egyptian Soudan. 343 



127. Hiruxdo urbica (Linn.). 



The House-Martin seems quite a rare straggler to this 

 part of Africa. I only noted it a few times in the autumn 

 of 1901, when I saw three or four together at Khartoum on 

 September 15th and October 26th and 27th, while Messrs. 

 Hawker, Witherby, Rothschild, and Wollaston do not seem 

 to have met with it at all. 



128. Cotile riparia (Linn.). 



Sand-Martins are more or less abundant on the rivers 

 between September and March. Often a "rise" of tiny 

 May-flies will cause them to assemble on the White Nile at 

 Khartoum in great numbers ; at other times one hardly sees 

 any. 



129. Cotile minor Cab. 



The Lesser Sand -Martin seems fairly numerous, asso- 

 ciating with the last species. When both are plentiful it is, 

 of course, difficult to judge in what proportion the species 

 are mingled. This bird breeds here, boring its nest-holes 

 in the soft soil of the Nile banks. I have noticed it thus 

 engaged in October and November. The colonies which I 

 have seen have been very small, consisting of only three or 

 four pairs of birds, and twice I have found a single pair 

 breeding by themselves. 



130. Cotile shelleyi Sharpe. 



a. ? . Khartoum, Dec. 26, 1902. 



h 2 ? 



These little Martins were abundant at the time w r hen I 

 obtained my specimens. Hundreds of them were hawking 

 over a crop of dhurra. Their small size attracted my atten- 

 tion, and I managed to kill four of them with a catapult 

 ■ — a very useful collecting-weapon, by the way, but one with 

 which I am not so proficient as in my younger days ! I had 

 probably overlooked the species among other Sand-Martins 

 on former occasions. 



