94 BUFOUS SWALLOW. 



"A cm-ious circumstance in connection with one of these nests 

 occurred to Dr. Krilper and myself, in a cave at the entrance to the 

 little Klissoura. Fastened to the roof of this cave, (which was on 

 the face of a low cliff, and not easy of access,) we espied a very good 

 nest of H. rufula, (daiiricaj upon which Dr. Kriiper proceeded to 

 operate with a penknife, whilst I placed my hand over the mouth of 

 the passage. Presently something that felt cold, like a dog's nose, 

 began rubbing against the palm. On withdrawing the hand a thick 

 snake poked his head out of the aperture, looked around for awhile, 

 and then jjopped in again. He was in very good quarters, and 

 evidently intended to take a lease of the premises, which just suited 

 him, as he could coil himself up in the bulb of the retort, with his 

 head and neck stretched out along the passage, in readiness for an 

 emergency. We soon had him sprawling on the floor of the cave, 

 when it became apparent that he had swallowed a full-grown young 

 Swallow; the other three being in all probability destined for a 

 similar fate. The sensations of those wretched little victims, lying in 

 such close contact with their horrible enemy, must have been some- 

 what akin to those of Ulysses and his com23anion in the cave of 

 Polyphemus. In the destruction of the nest two of them made their 

 escape; the fourth was captured and preserved by Kriiper, together 

 with the first, which, on being cut out of the body of the snake, was 

 found to be very little injured as a specimen. The walls of the cave 

 were smooth and nearly perpendicular; the roof at least seven feet 

 above the floor, and no cracks visible; how then could this monster 

 have wrigs^led himself into such a well-stocked larder?" 



Mr. Simpson further informs us that every European species 

 of Hirundo and Cypsela (except, perhaps, H. riparia,) may be 

 found breeding in Mount Aracynthus. Hirundo rupesfris is the only 

 Swallow which winters in Greece. 



The late Mr. Gray, in his "Hand List," gives this bird as the 

 U. rufula of Temminck, while to the Siberian bird, (the H. alpestris 

 of Pallas,) he assigns the name of H. daurica. I see no reason 

 whatever to alter the text of my first edition, but to make it quite 

 clear that the bird I have described, and whose habits have been so 

 well described by Mr. Simpson in Greece, is the same bird as is 

 described by Pallas as H. alpestris and by Linnseus as H. daurica. I 

 will quote the description of Pallas in full, from the appendix to 

 Lamarck's edition of the Voyages, volume viii., p. 66: — 



"No. 66. Hirundo alpestris, Hirundo daurica, Spicil. Zoolog. (Hiron- 

 delle de Daourie.) Magnitude suprar hir. domesticum, rostrumque 

 paulo latius. Color verticis inter alas vaseos alarum, tectricamque 



