58 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



in some these spots seem to form a circle at the obtuse end : axis, 

 10'" ; diameter, &". The flight of this species is very slow and sailing, 

 and they seek their prey usually near rocks, and are more crepuscular 

 in their habits than any of our other species, often flying so far into 

 the darkening twilight, that they can scarcely hQ distinguished from the 

 bats with which they mingle. 



90. Cotyle Cincta, Bodd. ; Hirundo Torquata, 

 Gml., PI. Eul. 723 ; Brown-collared Swallow, Griffith, 

 Guv., Vol. 2, p. 67. 



General colour above, brown ; beneath white ; pectoral band 

 and thighs brown ; spot in front of eye black ; a white line 

 extends from the nostrils over the centre of the eye ; eye very 

 dark-brown. Length, 5" 9'"; wing, 5"; tail, 2" 6"'. 



The first specimens of this bank swallow reached me from Capt. 

 Bulger, of H.M. 10th Eegiment {2nd Batt.), who procured it at 

 Windvqgelberg, on the frontier. I subsequently, in October, 1865, 

 discovered it about 14 miles from Cape Town, hawking about a small 

 stream ; it was there in some abundance. I again recognised a pair 

 sitting on the telegraph wires near Somerset West ; and on arriving 

 at Mr. Vigne's farm found a pair breeding in the bank of the River 

 Zonder End. The nest was about three yards deep, in a low bank. 

 I did not obtain the eggs. The parent birds never seemed to fly far 

 from the spot, but skimmed up and down the river. On my pointing 

 them out, the Messrs. Vigue, who have paid some attention to the 

 birds found in their neighbourhood, pronounced them strangers to 

 them ; and I do not think they have been in the vicinity of Cape 

 Town till this year. My son tells me they have been abundant about 

 Cape Town during the whole of this year. Several fine species added 

 to the Museum shelves, the produce of his gun, attest the correctness 

 of his eye in more senses than one. — Dec. 1866. 



91. Cotyle Palustris, steph., Bp. Consp., p. 342 ; 



C. Paludicola, Vieill. ; G, Paludibula, Riippell. ; L'Hi- 

 rondelle de Marais, Le Vail., PI. 246, f, 2 ; G. Palu- 

 dicola, Rup. ; Guv., Vol. 2, p. 61, var. 



G ENERAL colour hair-brown ; the edges of the feathers light 

 rufous ; belly and vent white ; tail very slightly forked. 

 Some specimens are throughout of a dull dark-brown. 

 Length, 5" ; wing, 4" 4"' ; tail, 2" 5'". 



The Cape bank swallow is the earliest comer of all our migratory 

 swallows and swifts. It is rarely seen far from water, and breeds in 

 the banks of rivers or artificial dams, over which it continually hawks 

 for flies. It lays three or four white eggs, of the same size and shape 

 as those of our European H. Biparia, and the nest is often run to the 

 depth of two or three feet into the soil, when it is loose and friable. 



Mr. Cairncross, of Swellendam, informs us that, if the winter is 



