Mr. T. Ayres on the Ornithology of Transvaal. 261 
and other Swallows, but more particularly with C. paludicola, 
which bird it very much resembles, though it seems to me, 
during its flight especially, to be pretty easily distinguishable 
by the darker and more metallic shade of the wings, by its 
more rapid flight (as it easily passes C. paludicola, and its 
flight is not nearly so wavering as in that species), and also 
by its white throat, which is conspicuous during flight ; its 
wings, too, during flight, appear to be more acute and sharply 
cut than those of C. paludicola, and this is particularly notice- 
able, as well as the general smaller appearance of the bird ; 
the beat of its wings is often rapid, resembling that of the 
smaller Swifts. Although these birds appear here in con- 
siderable numbers, I have only noticed them at the latter 
end of our summer, whereas C. paludicola is common all the 
year round, both winter and summer. ‘The iris and tarsus, 
as a rule, are of a lighter brown than in C. paludicola. 
One morning, very early, I went down to the river with 
my rod to fish, and, sitting quietly near an extensive bed of 
reeds and rushes, I saw many hundreds of these little Martins 
leave their roosts among the rushes, all together, just as the 
sun rose; abouta quarter of an hour later many hundreds of 
C. paludicola left the same patch of reeds, or others close by, 
all together, or nearly so; at this time the two species were 
not mixed, but at other times of the day they are nearly always 
together, coursing for insects. 
[So far as I am aware, the present is the first instance of 
Cotile riparia having been obtained in any African locality 
south of the equator. Mr. Ayres has sent me nine specimens, 
obtained near Potchefstroom in 1879; one of these has acci- 
dentally lost the ticket which was attached to it; of the re- 
mainder, seven were obtained at dates varying from the 22nd 
to the 28th February, and one as late as 13th March. By 
the kindness of Mr. Dresser, I have been able to compare 
these skins with his series of C. riparia, consisting of eight 
English specimens, two from Piedmont, one from Spain, and 
one from Niagara, and can find no difference between the 
birds lent to me by Mr. Dresser and those sent from Mr. 
Ayres, except that the latter are all in adult dress, which is 
not the case with two or three of the former.—J. H. G. | 
