194 HIHUNDINIDJi. 



negligent in making exact notes of their nidification ; the follow- 

 ing are all I have : 



" 7th Jan., 1870. Young birds just fledged. 



" 17th Jan., 1870. Scores more have left the nest. 



" 22nd June, 1870. The Swallows have come back to their 

 nests in great numbers. 



" 5th Jan., 1871. Swallows breeding. 



" 9th Feb., 1871. This morning I waded into the water and 

 examined a number of the nests. I first put my fingers into those 

 with short necks, and found them all empty. 1 then broke open 

 five nests that had necks 6 inches long. Of these two were empty, 

 but lined with straw, feathers, and rags ; two more contained 

 young birds; the fifth had three white eggs. It is worth record- 

 ing that for some weeks past young birds have been leaving the 

 nest, the old ones feeding them on the wing. The nests are made 

 entirely of pellets of clay, all exactly alike and as large as dry peas. 

 I lately watched about twenty of these Swallows building ; they 

 took the mud from the edge of the water about ten yards from the 

 nests, and were in a tremendous bustle. They took several pecks 

 at the mud to make each pellet, and stayed five seconds on the 

 ground each time. 



"A colony of these Swallows breed under a bridge over the 

 ri\er at Poona, but it would be impossible to get a sight of the 

 nests without a boat, and the Poona Boat-club never go on that 

 branch of the river." 



Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark of this Swallow in the 

 Deccan : " Very common. Breeds in great numbers under the 

 railway-arch over the standing water of Sholapoor tank." 



Colonel Butler says : " I have eggs of the Cliff-Swallow taken 

 at Sattara in 1875. Some are pure white, the others marked all 

 over with pale yellowish brown." 



Captain E. B. Shopland, I.M., found this Swallow breeding at 

 Akyab. He says : I found about ten nests in April under a 

 bridge ; some contained young birds, others fresh eggs. The nests 

 were composed of mud and lined with grass, casuarina-1 eaves, and 

 feathers. The greatest number of eggs in any one nest was four, 

 and they were white speckled with two shades of brown, chiefly 

 round the larger end." 



The eggs of this species vary much in size, shape, and colour. 

 >ically they are a long oval, a good deal pointed towards one 

 end; but some are fairly perfect ovals, while others are pyriform, 

 and here and there a nearly cylindrical variety is observable. 

 They are smaller, as a rule, than those of H. erythropyyia and more 

 glossy, resembling in these respects those of H. Jilifera. The 

 ground-colour in all is white, a good deal tinged, when fresh and 

 unblown, with pale salmon-colour, due to the partial transparency 

 of the delicate shell. About half are pure and spotless white, the 

 rest are more or less streaked, mottled, speckled, or clouded with 

 pale yellowish, or somewhat reddish brown. The markings are 

 never bold or sharply defined as those of H. Jilifera so commonly 



