HIEITNDO. 



191 



the brickwork under au overhanging ledge of stone. I have often 

 found the nest under bridges overhanging the water, and in holes 

 of rocks with a similar aspect."' 



Writing subsequently from Sind, he farther says : — " Hijdrahad, 

 Sind, i)th June, 1878. A nest under an archway over a canal, 

 containing two fresh eggs. Another nest in a well on the 12th 

 June, containing three fresh eggs Two more nests under arch- 

 ways over canals on the 20th idem, each containing three fresh 

 eggs ; and any number of other nests later on in the same neigh- 

 bourhood, and in the E. Narra in similar situations." 



Messrs. Davidson and AVenden, writing from the Deccan, re- 

 mark : — " Common and breeds."' 



Lieut. H. E. Barnes, writing of Eajputana in general, tells us 

 that "the Wire-tailed 8wallow, to my thinking the handsomest of 

 the Hirundines, breeds from the latter part of February to April, 

 and again in August and Beptember."" 



The eggs are in shape a long narrow oval, a good deal pointed 

 towards one end. In some there is a pyriform tendency,_and some 

 are so excessively long and narrow as to recall the eggs of Cypselus 

 affinis. In texture they are fine and delicate with, when fresh, a 

 beautiful gloss, which, 'however, almost disappears as incubation 

 proceeds. The ground-colour is white or pinkish white (when 

 fresh and unblown almost a delicate salmon-pink, owing to the 

 yolk partially showing through), richly speckled, spotted, and 

 blotched with various s4iades of reddish brown and brownish red. 

 The extent of the markings varies greatly, as well as the intensity 

 of their colouring. Some are spotted pretty uniformly all over ; 

 but in the majority the markings are most numerous at the large 

 end. Occasionally they are gathered into a well-marked zone 

 towards tliis end ; and one egg has a nearly complete cap of con- 

 fluent markings covering the whole of the larger end. These are 

 the most richly-marked Swallow's eggs that I know, and some 

 specimens are excessively handsome. 



The ec^gs vary greatly in dimensions, viz., from 0-65 to 0*8 inch 

 in length, and from O-o to O'ST inch in breadth ; but the average 

 struck from a large number of measurements I find to be 0*72 by 

 0-53 inch. 



819. Hirundo fluvicola, Jerd. The Indian Cliff-Swalloiv. 



Ilirundo fluvicola, Jenl, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 161. 



Lageuoplastes fluvicola {Jerd.), Hume, Rowjh Draft N. c^- U. no. 87. 



The Indian Cliff-Swallow is one of the commonest of our Swal- 

 lows, in Upper India at any rate. Erom the Tonse Eiver near 

 Mirzapiir to the Sutledge near Ferozpur it abound.s wherever there 

 is water and cliffs or ruined buildings against which it can plaster 

 its huge mud honeycomb-like congeries of nests. In the Doon 

 under the Solanee Aqueduct, in Ajmere, at Ahmedabad, in Guzerat, 

 in Saugor, in the Central Provinces, and twenty other places, I 

 have noticed numerous colonies in and on buildings ; and as for 



