1885.] prof. w. nation on peritvian birds. 277 



4. Attacus atlas, L. 1 c?. 



The vitreous sput of the fore wing with a very obtuse angle towards 

 the costa ; exterior angle acuminated, interior side convex, exterior 

 side concave ; the vitreous accessory spot small, lineal, along the 

 middle hardly transparent, not reaching the outer cross band. The 

 vitreous spot of the hind wing forms nearly a regular triangle, the 

 posterior margin of which is rather sinuated. 



There are now 25 species of Butterflies known from Timorlaut, 

 no doubt only a small part of those there existing. 



3. Notes on Peruvian Birds. By Prof. W. Nation^ C.M.Z.S. 



[Received February 27, 1885.] 



1. Petrochelidon ruficollis (Peale). 



Some twenty years ago an American engineer, engaged by the 

 Peruvian Government to survey the Andean valleys and coasts of 

 Peru for railway routes, showed me a letter from his friend the 

 late Mr. John Cassin, requesting him to examine carefully the rocks 

 and chfFs for a Swallow's nest. He informed me that he had searched 

 for it for two or three years without success. 



Many years after, when the subject of Mr. Cassin's letter had 

 almost escaped my memory, being in the National Library of Lima, 

 looking c\er some books which had just arrived, I found the 

 two volumes of Birds of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, and saw 

 the description of the Swallows obtained by Peale, near Callao, in, 

 I think, 1835, and named by him. Hirundo ruficollis. With this 

 information I recommenced my search for it. 



One would naturally suppose that if a Crag-Martin had been 

 found in Western Peru, its breeding place would be found in one of 

 the Andean valleys, wlicre everything necessary for its economy 

 abounds. Such at least was my impression ; and from this error I 

 lost many years in searching for it in places which it rarely 

 or perhaps never visits. 



At length, in 1877, tired and fatigued by a long ramble over the 

 hot sandy hills of the neighbourhood of Lima, I came to some old 

 ruins of a brick- or lime-works, so old that the ditches that had one 

 supplied it with water had in many places disappeared ; it must have 

 been abandoned for a quarter of a century at least. Here, while 

 sitting down inside the old kiln, I observed a bit of earth adhering 

 to the wall ; on removing it and blowing away carefully the loose 

 particles of dust, I saw that it was composed of pellets, and that 

 these pellets could not have been formed by any insect. I felt 

 convinced that I had discovered the object of so many fatiguing 

 journeys. Every rock, wall, and building near the ruins was carefully 

 examined by me ; and in the course of the day, about twelve miles 

 from the city I fell in with a large colony of Cliff-Swallows. 



On the following day I returned with a man and a ladder. The 

 house which this bird had selected for its breeding place was a 



Proc. ZooL. Soc— 1885, No. XIX. 19 



