186 HIRUNDINID^. 



The eggs of this species vary much in size and a good deal in 

 shape. Typically they are elongated ovals, a good deal compressed 

 towards the smaller end. The cubic contents of some eggs must 

 be nearly double those of others. The shell is very fine and com- 

 pact, and has, in some eggs, a slight gloss. The ground-colour 

 varies from pure white to a pale salmon-pink, but in the majority 

 it is white. Typically the eggs are pretty thickly spotted and 

 speckled with brownish red and inky purple, the markings being 

 always most numerous, and at times very dense, to^\■ards the large 

 end, where they occasionally form an irregular mottled zone. 

 Occasionally the brownish red is replaced by a slightly reddish 

 olive-brown. In some eggs the markings want the speckly-spotty 

 character of the typical egg, and are merely pale inky-purple and 

 brownish-red clouds. In some, again, the markings are, as a 

 whole, much more minute, and the whole surface of the egg 

 is finely freckled and mottled with pale brownish red. 



In size the eggs vary from 0*7 to 0-84 inch in length, and from 

 0*5 to 0"5o inch in breadth ; but the average of seventeen eggs was 

 0-76 by 0-53 inch*. 



817. Hirundo javanica, Sparrm. The NUghrri House-Swallow. 



Ilirundo domicola, Jerd. B. Inch i, p. 158. 



Ilypurolepsis domicola {Jerd.), Hume, Rough Draft N. t^ E. no. 83. 



Mr. Davison remarks : — " The Nilghiri House-Swallow breeds 

 oji the western side of these hills from February to April, rearing 

 (from what I have observed) two broods in immediate succession. 

 The nest is composed of pellets of mud, thickly lined with feathers, 

 open at the top, with the saucer-like depression rather deep ; it is 

 usually placed in some building, cave, or against some well-sheltered 

 rock. The eggs, usually three in number, are white, spotted with 

 brown and reddish brown, with a few larger markings of a purplish 

 colour. Occasionally four eggs are laid; but when this is the case 

 I have found that invariably only three hatch. 



" About a week after the first brood ha\e flown the old birds 

 begin to remove the topmost feathers of the nest, replacing them 

 by fresh oues. Three eggs are then again laid, and a second brood 

 reared. After this brood have flown, the old birds still continue 



* Mr. J. Darling, Jun., records the followingnote regarding the nidification 

 of Hirundo had'ia (Cass.), which is found in the Malay Peninsula, and may 

 possibly extend to Tenasseriui : — -"The first bird of this species I shot in 

 Kossoom was one of a flock that ap[)earcd from the east and flew straight away 

 westwards, I afterwards found them in considerable numbers in a largo lime- 

 stone cave, in which they were bi-ceding later on. 



■'Again, in Puongali, I saw numbers flying about the limestone hills that 

 surround tlie town. Their habits and voice arc almost similar to that of 

 //. javanica. The nest is built of pellets of mud stuck to the under surface of 

 some rock in the shajic of a half-goglet with a very long neck, and is lined 

 with coarse grass-roots and I'catliers." 



