56 PASSERES. — HIRUNDINID^. 



them. I was able to see the whole character of 

 their form and colouring, 'great black Martins, 

 with a white collar,' as your letter delineates them. 

 They continued quartering over the fields, till the 

 sunlight had left the plains, or was only reflected 

 by the mountains and their piles of roseate clouds. 

 The rain had brought all insect-life to the moist 

 surface of the earth, and these birds were follow- 

 ing their congregated swarms to the wet savannas. 

 They sometimes stooped to the puddles, and shot 

 past with a twitter that very much reminded one 

 of the summer play of their smaller sized con- 

 geners. 



" I have seen the same bird twice or thrice 

 since, but in threes or fours only, and, always, 

 only near rocky and unfrequented hills. Another 

 friend, who drew my attention to them in conse- 

 -quence of their numbers after rains, in his neigh- 

 bourhood, lived among large open savannas and 

 salt-ponds, near the low range of rocky and sterile 

 mountains, which our maps call the Healthshire 

 hills. He told me he had traced them to the 

 caverns in those mountains, in which he felt as- 

 sured they nestled in hundreds. This is the nearest 

 to any precise information, I ever could get of 

 their haunts and habitations." 



I am not alone in thinking these birds difficult 

 to shoot ; a gentleman who resides near Kingston, 

 having observed them at his residence one evening, 

 the last spring, and kindly wishing to supply me 

 with a specimen, though an expert shot, fired five 

 times unsuccessfully at them. Yet I am not without 



