268 MOTACILLID/E. 



Gen. Petrochelidon. Cab. 



Tail square or only slightly emarginate ; rump differing from the back in 

 colour. (Sharpe.) 



781. Petrochelidon flUViCOla (Blyth\ Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. 

 Mus. x. p. 2OO. Hirundo fluvicola, Blyth, J. A. S. tt. xxiv. p. 470 ; Jerd. t 

 B. Ind. i. p. 161 ; id., Ibis, 1871, p. 352 ; Hayes Lloyd, Ibis, 1873, p. 406 ; 

 Hume, Nests and Eggs, Ind. B. p. 80 ; Adams, Sir. F. 1873, P- 37 ', Aitken, 

 Sir. F. 1875, p. 213 ; Davidson and Wenden, Sir. F. 1882, p. 293. Lageno- 

 plastes fluvicola, Gould, B. Asia, i. pi. 33; Hume, Sir. F. 1875, p. 452; 

 Fairb., Sir. F. 1876, p. 2545 Butler, Sir. F. 1877, p. 217. The INDIAN 

 CLIFF SWALLOW. 



Above glossy blue -black ; lesser wing coverts the same ; the remainder 

 dusky blackish, glossed with steel-green ; rump and upper tail coverts smoky 

 brown, mottled with blackish ; tail blackish with a steel-green gloss ; crown of 

 the head dull brick red, the feathers with blackish shaft lines ; lores white, 

 separated from the forehead by a line of black ; ear coverts dusky brown, 

 streaked with fulvous brown ; abdomen and under tail coverts pure white with 

 narrow dusky shaft lines. 



Length. 4-5 inches; wing 4-6 ; tail 175; tarsus 0-4 ; culmen 0-25. 



jj a j) t India generally, Central India, Kutch, Kattiawar Punjab, Nagpoor, 

 Berar and the Godavery Valley. It is also recorded from Mirzapoor, Ajmere, 

 Ahmedabad, Etawah and Gwalior, also from the Dhoon. Hume says they 

 breed from February to April, and again in July and August, building a more 

 or less retort-shaped mud nest in cluster of from 20 to 200, packed as closely 

 as possible. The normal number of eggs is three. They are generally long 

 ovals, a good deal pointed at one end. In colour they are pure white or white, 

 speckled, streaked and spotted with pale yellowish or reddish brown. In size 

 they vary from 0-65 to O'8 inch in length, and from 0*48 to 0-58 inch in 

 breadth. 



Family. MOTACILLID^:. 



Nine-quilled Passeres with bill generally of moderate length, slender, straight, 

 and more or less deflected at the tip ; rictus nearly smooth ; wings long and 

 pointed ; tertiaries lengthened and nearly as long as the primaries ; tail long ; 

 tarsus long and slender ; toes moderate ; hind claw long and slightly 

 curved. No bastard primary ; plumage either black and white, or grey and 

 white with a good deal of yellow. 



The family Motacillidae comprises two groups of birds, the^pecies of each 

 bear a very close resemblance one to another. They live almost entirely on 

 the ground, though some do perch on trees, and their natural habitat is by the 

 river side, on the margin of lakes, damp ground, meadows, marshes and 

 irrigated fields ; some of the Anthinae or pipits, however, affect bare stony 



