504 Mr. C. F. M. Swynncrton on the 



148. lliKUNDO GRisEOPYGA. Grev-rumped Swallow. 

 Rh., P. During the past year 1 have seen a great deal of 



this Swallow, which, rare elsewhere in South Africa, seems 

 to occur commonly throughout Northern and Southern 

 Melsetter, sometimes in pairs, but usually in some numbers 

 and occasionally in company with Psalidoprocne orient alls. 

 Some of the localities in which I have noted it are the 

 neighbourhood of Chirinda, Spuugabera, and the upper Jihu 

 (in all of which contiguous localities it was particularly 

 plentiful during June and July, and again in November) ; at 

 Maruma, where I saw it daily during my week^s stay there 

 in September ; all along the Nyahodi Valley later in the 

 same month, " hawking low over the new grass and some- 

 times settling to feed in the road " ; and on the Chipetzana 

 in October, in company with H. atroccerulea. On the 16th of 

 Jul}^, out of a number which Avere hawking forwards and 

 backwards in the early morning near Mr. Ballantyne's home- 

 stead in the upper Jihu, two began descending and settling 

 on a recently-hoed strip of ground, remaining there for a 

 second or two, then up, and after another short round again 

 settling, and so on. A termite-heap had been broken open 

 at that spot, and this was doubtless the attraction. Two 

 adult birds measured in length in the flesh 5*6 and 5*8 inches 

 respectively, and an immature bird 4*35. Bill black, irides 

 and feet dark vandyk-brown. Contents : numerous small 

 flies and beetles. 



149. HiRUNDo PUELLA. Smaller Striped-breasted Swallow, 

 Rh., P. 1 have not yet seen this Swallow in the Jihu, 



though throughout both sections of the Melsetter District 

 it is exceedingly plentiful (I noted it particularly along the 

 Lusitu and Nyahodi Valleys in September), while, on the 

 Portuguese side of the border, I have found it in the 

 Chikamboge Valle)'^ and at Spungabera. A pair were already 

 building at my homestead last year in July and had brought 

 out their young by the end of August, at a time when most 

 of their companions were merely beginning to enter verandahs 

 and houses and the sheltered crannies of exposed shale-clifls 



