COTYLE CINCTA. 359 
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, ina 
low bank. We did not obtain the eggs. The parent birds never 
seemed to fly far from the spot, but skimmed up and down the 
river. On our pointing them out, the Messrs. Vigne, who have paid 
some attention to the birds found in their neighbourhood, pronounced 
them strangers to them; and we do not think they have been in the 
vicinity of Cape Town till the year 1865. During the whole of 1866 
Mr. L. C. Layard found them abundant near Cape Town, and after 
that date until we left the Cape this swallow could always be met 
with in that vicinity during the summer months. We fancy that 
previously to this the species could not have been very plentiful at 
the western end of the Colony, although Mr. F. R. Surtees, who 
has made a special study of these birds, tells us that he procured it 
in 1862. About the Berg river we found it not uncommon in Sep- 
tember, 1869, breeding in the river banks and the sides of the 
ditches along the road to Malmesbury. It tunnels a hole about three 
feet long, of the size of a man’s arm, inclining upwards, and the 
eges (four or five) are-pure white and rather sharp at the thin end. 
Axis, 10”; diam, 6’’’. Mr. Ayres gives the following note respect- 
ing the bird in Natal :—‘‘These birds I only found inland. Their 
flight much resembles that of the Rollers, and they make a loud 
chattering note whilst flymg. The specimen sent I shot in February 
near Pietermaritzburg ; it is a heavy, large-sized Swallow, solitary 
and scarce. The stomach contained good sized beetles somewhat 
broken up.” Mr. T. EK. Buckley obtained a male bird in the Draken- 
berg Mountains during his journey to the Matabili country. He 
observes :—“ A summer migrant apparently, as I only saw them on 
our return journey ; they were not particularly abundant, a few pairs 
only being seen together in this one spot.” Mr. Thomas Ayres says 
that he also noticed it in the Lydenburg district. 
Adult.—Above greyish-brown, darker on the head and paler on 
the rump, where the dark shafts of the feathers become plainer ; quills 
dark brown, the secondaries edged at the tip with whitish ; tail dark 
brown, narrowly margined with whitish, no spots on the inner webs ; 
lores black ; ear coverts dark brown; a patch of feathers extending 
from the nostrils to the eye, throat, breast, under wing and tail- 
coverts pure white; a band across the breast and thighs brown ; 
