88 



The Putringa is also a very watchful bird. On the approach of a 

 hawk, he immediately mounts into the air and utters a shrill mut- 

 tering noise, which is well understood and taken up by all the other 

 birds, who immediately fly to cover. 



12. HiRUNDO FiLiFERA, Stephens. 



I have seen this beautiful Swallow in my own compound after 

 rain, and also sportiug over a stagnant part of the Jumna at Brin- 

 dabun. Its nešt was uuder a projecting part of the building over- 

 hanging the water. 



\'6. Cypselus affinis, J. E. Gray. Native name, Ababil. 



Very common in the neighbourhood of Muttra. I have caught 

 many specimens by simply stauding at the bottom of a staircase in 

 which were numbers of their uests, and wa^^ng the hat as they flew 

 out, when they were instantly entangled. They appear half-blind 

 or stupid after daylight. They quite fili up with feathers, &c., any 

 hole in the wall for their nešt, but when they build in the corner of 

 a building they make a very thin cup-shaped nešt. These nests they 

 fasteu one to another. The materials in the latter case appear glued 

 together. Their claws are excessively sharp, and hold on to the 

 flesh with desperate tenacity. 



14. Caprimtjlgus . Native name, Chapka. 



These secrete themselves during the day at the roots of bushes, 

 and fly out at dusk. They take such short and quick turns in the 

 air, that a hawk can only with great efFort catch them. The Sparrow- 

 hawk alone is successful in this case. The uatives believe that if it 

 settles on a cow she becomes ill, and her milk dries up. 



15. Halc\on Smyrnensis, Linn. Native name, Kilkila. 



This is found near ponds and small streams. Sometimes it raay 

 be seen sitting solitary on the top of a tree or the corner of a cottage, 

 and at short intervals utters a shrill tremulous souud of seven or eight 

 syllables, kililUUiU, likę a wire which, having been struck, continues 

 to vibrate. It often utters this ory before break of day, and some- 

 times during the night. 



In the dry weather it sits near the watcr-courses in gardens, and 

 watches for insects of any sort in the damp ground beneath dense 

 fruit trees. I have seen it twice alight and devour an insect in such 

 places. 



I have found this species breeding in the Kaži' s garden, and ob- 

 served the female feeding her full-growu young one near the hole 

 where the nešt was. It waited for its food on the bough of a tree. 



June Ist. — Observed the raale treading the female, which is done 

 in a similar manner as in the ducks. The habits of this bird bear 

 covnparison \vith aąuatic birds only in a few iiistauces. Its organi- 

 zation is, according (o ornithologists, that of land birds, though the 

 moderus have classcd it with water birds, because perhaps they frc- 



