166 Mr. O. V. Aplin on the 



of the other Brazilian ports we touched at, terminating with 

 Pernambnco in lat. 8° 3' S. 



11. Progne tapera. Tree Martin. 



Summer visitor, common — breeding in the old nests of the 

 Hornero [Furnarius 7'vfus), and, consequently, usually seen 

 where there are plenty of trees. I saw a pair feeding young 

 in the nest as late as the 29th January, but I think they left 

 in February. 



12. Tachycineta leucorrhoa. White-rumped Swallow. 

 Common. Breeds chiefly under eaves of buildings, but a 



pair tried to nest in a hole in an acacia in the patio, and 

 brought in some grass and feathers; possession was after- 

 wards disputed by a pair of Yellow House-Sparrows, and in 

 the end neither had it. This pair used to sit on the iron 

 pulley arch over the aljibe, the male singing a low inward 

 twittering song. There Avcre still some to be seen in the 

 camp in the middle of May, and I saw a few about the Cerro 

 at Montevideo on the 4th June. 



-f- 13. Atticora CYANOLEUCA. BaulvSwallow. 



Summer visitor and common. It was plentiful when I 

 arrived in mid-October, and I believe left in March. It 

 breeds in holes, chiefly in the perpendicular earthy banks of 

 a river, Canada or zanja (a rift in the ground caused by 

 torrents in heavy rains), and I have known nests in a little 

 escarpment near the house Avhere stone had been excavated. 

 Many of the holes are the deserted burrows made by the 

 Minera [Geositta cunicularia) , but I am tolerably sure that 

 in some cases they are excavated by the birds themselves. 

 It is common to find several — perhaps a dozen — pairs 

 breeding close together, and in October I saw birds clinging 

 to the banks in front of shallow excavations just as we see 

 Sand Martins at home. In 1892, however, on account of 

 the long-continued drought, the black heavy soil had set so 

 hard that (apparently) the birds could make little impression 

 on it. It might not have been so hard in one way as the 

 sandstone which we see bored in England, but it certainly 

 did not " work " so easily. On one occasion I saw a Bank 



