FOR NORTHERN INDIA 45 



are white with brown streaks, which are most 

 apparent on the throat and upper breast. 

 These swallows normally nest at two seasons 

 of the year from February till April and in 

 July or August. 



They breed in colonies. The mud nests are 

 spherical or oval with an entrance tube from 

 two to six inches long. The nests are invariably 

 attached to a cliff or building, and, although 

 isolated ones are built sometimes, they usually 

 occur in clusters, as many as two hundred have 

 been counted in one cluster. In such a case a 

 section cut parallel to the surface to which the 

 nests are attached looks like that of a huge 

 honeycomb composed of cells four inches in 

 diameter cells of a kind that one could expect 

 to be built by bees that had partaken of Mr. 

 H. G. Wells' " food of the gods." 



The beautiful white-breasted kingfisher, 

 (Halcyon smyrnensis) is now busy at its 

 nest. 



This species spends most of its life in shady 

 gardens ; it feeds on insects in preference to 

 fish. It does not invariably select a river bank 

 in which to nest, it is quite content with a 

 sand quarry, a bank, or the shaft of a kachcha 

 well. The nest consists of a passage, some two 



