OS EE SS a ee ee 
HIRUNDO ALBIGULARIS, 365 
supposed ‘‘ Hirondelle 4 front roux” of Le Vaillant. They were 
breeding beneath the bridge, but we were unable at the time to get 
at the nests, which we have since visited, and found to resemble 
those of the European bird in shape and structure. Le Vaillant says 
he only found. this species in the rainy season (our winter). In this 
he is most undoubtedly mistaken, so far as the Cape peninsula is 
concerned. No other swallow than OC. fuligula remains during this 
time, whatever they may do in the more inland districts; but, 
from all we can gather from our correspondents, we have no reason 
to think that even there H. albigularis is to be found in the 
winter. 
Mr. L. C. Layard found the species breeding at Grootevadersbosch 
near Swellendam, and together we procured its nest at the Berg 
river in the middle of September. The nest was a half cup attached 
to a beam in a stable, and was composed of mud and lined with hay 
and feathers. The eggs were very thin, white (pink when con- 
taining the yolk), and spotted, chiefly at the obtuse end, in the 
shape of a ring, with minute dots of green, brown, and yellow, with 
here and there a larger spot. In shape they were sometimes much 
pointed, at other times they were very round: axis, 11’’; diam. 7”. 
Andersson and Victorin both procured this Swallow at the Knysna, 
and we have seen several specimens from Natal. Mr. Thomas Ayres 
has also found them in the Transvaal, and he says that they were 
fairly common near Lydenburg, where they were most frequently to 
be seen hawking along the streams. 
Adult.—Above deep purplish blue: quills blackish brown, with a 
faint gloss on the upper surface, the innermost cubital feathers 
marked on the inner web with a greyish white spot: tail blackish 
brown, the two centre feathers unspotted, but all the others marked 
on the inner web with a large patch of white: forehead deep 
chestnut : space between the bill and the eye, and the ear-coverts, 
dusky-black : throat, cheeks, and sides of the neck white; below 
the throat a broad band of purplish blue feathers, broad at the sides 
and narrow in the centre of the breast: rest of the under surface of 
the body dull white, greyish on the flanks: bill black: feet dark 
brown. Total length, 6°3 inches; culmen, 0°4; wing, 5°25; tail, 
32; tarsus, 0°45. 
Fig. Strickl. Contr. Orn. 1849, pl. 15. 
