a 
PETROCHELIDON SPILODERA. 857 
mostly in the evening, often long after sunset.” Mr. F. A. Barratt 
noticed the species both at Rustenburg and at Macamac, but in 
either place it was rather scarce: he states that he shot them in the 
forest as they flew up and down in the open spaces. 
Adult male.—Above dark greenish black, deepest in the centre of 
the back and on the breast: quills deep black, with a slight greenish 
lustre, the outer web of the first primary distinctly serrated: tail 
dark greenish black, long and deeply forked: “bill black, legs 
purplish-brown, shading off into flesh-colour on the back of the 
tarsus and on the soles of the feet: iris dark brown.” (G. H. Shelley.) 
Total length, 6°4 inches; wing, 4°1; tail, 3:0; tarsus, 0°3. 
Adult female.—Similar to the male, but somewhat smaller and 
more dusky: outer edge of first primary nof serrated: tail less 
forked. 
Fig. Cass. Pr. Philad. Acad. 1850, pl. 12. 
343. PrrrocHELIDON SPILODERA. Prince Alfred’s Swallow. 
Hirundo lunifrons, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 55. 
The genus Petrochelidon is entirely peculiar to America with the 
exception of this single ‘species, which inhabits South Africa. Here 
it represents the North American Barn Swallow (P. lunifrons), 
which it resembles so strikingly as to have led to its being actually 
confounded with it in the first edition of this work. The circum- 
stances of its re-discovery in Southern Africa were very curious. The 
author was first led to a knowledge of this species by observing an 
unusual appearance on an overhanging rock photographed near Mid- 
dleburg during the journey of H.R.H. Prince Alfred through South 
Africa in 1860. On applying a strong magnifying power to the 
picture, he distinctly made out that the appearance consisted of a 
cluster of birds’ nests. He at once concluded that they were con- 
structed by some kind of Swallow unknown to us, and requested 
our zealous contributor, Mr. Jackson, to look well after them, if 
ever he found himself in the neighbourhood. This he did, and 
tells us he counted about twenty nests, under a rock, clustered 
together. 
Mr. Ortlepp writes from Colesberg :—“ The nests are composed 
of pellets of mud closely packed together. I counted no less than 
sixty in a square yard against an overhanging bank. Lach nest is 
a half sphere, with a small hole for entrance. The Boers tell me 
