HIRUNDO CUCULLATA. 371 
blackened by them. No wonder, then, that the Swallow is a welcome 
guest, and that to rob his nest is to get into the bad books of every 
member of the family. 
fi As you sit at meals, the graceful bird hawks over the table, and 
snatches the flies from the walls and ceiling; nor is this the only 
service he renders, for, sitting on the top of the window or door 
(always left open for his accommodation), he pours out a short but 
lively song, which enlivens the dreary solitude and silence of the 
lone homestead. 
The nest of this species is always attached to the under side of 
the place chosen, and is composed of little pellets of mud, like that 
| . of the English Swallow. In shape it resembles a gourd with a long 
neck, cut through longitudinally and glued up by the edges to the 
ceiling. It lays four or five pure white eges: axis, 10”; diam. 6”,) 
The Rey. John Fry, of Rondebosch, once related to us a singular 
instance of the reasoning powers of this Swallow. The tube of a 
nest in his bath-room fell down, and was not replaced by the old 
birds, who had brought up their young, till within a few days of 
their flight, when one, more venturesome than his brothers and 
sisters, crept to the edge of the nest and fell over. After vainly 
trying to replace their dead offspring, the disconsolate parents, 
although their nesting was nearly over, repaired the broken tube to 
prevent a recurrence of the catastrophe. 
It arrives in the western part of the colony about the end of 
August or beginning of September, but is somewhat irregular as 
regards its advent. Thus in 1868 we observed the first Cape Swallow 
at Uitkek, near Cape Town, on the 29th of August, but in the suc- 
ceeding year the first bird was noticed by us at Greenpoint, near 
Cape Town, on the 19th of September, and Mr. Atmore saw it at 
George on the previous day for the first time. Victorin procured it 
in the Karroo in December and January, and at the Knysna between 
September and March, and he believes that it remains there as late 
as April. We have no record of its occurrence in the Eastern 
district of the colony, but they are found in Natal. Captain Shelley 
writes :—“ Very plentiful throughout Cape Colony and Natal, and 
very often seen feeding in company with the Swifts. In March and 
April I frequently saw it engaged in constructing its nest, which it 
places against walls of houses in similar positions to those chosen for 
that purpose by our common House-Martin.” 
232 
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