5 



the one which we managed with great difficulty to reacli was lined with feathers ; hut 

 though the hird was in the nest, and the date was the 22nd of May, yet no eggs were 

 contained in it, much to our disappointment. The other nests were heyond reach, save 

 one ; and the owner of the house assured us that it contained no eggs, hut would not 

 allow us to ascertain if such was the case. This instance of the hreeding of the Crag- 

 Martin in the narrow streets of the town of Andorra is, it is thought, a somewliat unusual 

 circumstance, and more especially so as tlie town is not situated upon, or in the close prox- 

 imity of, crags or cliffs The bird was also noted in the villages of Escaldas and 



Encamp ; but we did not observe any nests, which might, however, have existed. There 

 were plenty of them on the great cliff at Canillo. The species was very abundant on 

 the great cliff below Merens, Upper Ariege, where the many recesses in its face offered 

 abundant nesting-sites." 



Mr. Howard Saunders says that in Southern Spain the species is " resident throughout 

 the year, frequenting rocks and old ruins, also modern edifices, provided that they are 

 perched on the edge of a crag. A colony which frequented a gorge of the Segura were 

 only to be seen between twelve and one o'clock each day." Although the birds were 

 evidently breeding, he did not succeed in finding a nest. 



Colonel Irby gives the following note on the species near Gibraltar: — "The Eock- 

 or Crag-Martin, though universally distributed during the breeding-season in the rocky 

 Sierras, is to a great extent migratory. Those which do not quit the country appear 

 during the daytime in low ground near the coast al)out the middle of October, great 

 quantities being then seen about Gibraltar. They roost at that season about low rocks, 

 especially about the Rock. In March they return to their breeding-haunts, some nesting 

 in inaccessible places at the ' back of the rock.' They commence about the 10th of 

 3Iarch to build their nests, which resemble those of the House-Martin {Chelidoa urblca). 

 Placed in the roofs of caverns, these nests are very difficult to reach, and I did not 

 succeed in examining the inside of one. The birds were sitting by the 30th of .Vpril. 

 One locality for nests near Gibraltar, and the most accessible that I have seen, is a cave 

 in a patch of rocks at the entrance of La Troclia, on the road from Algeciraz to Ojen, 

 where it passes by the side of the ravine called ' La Garganta del Capitan.' At tlie back 

 of the rock, at Gibraltar, is a cave almost under the Osprey's eyry, which can oiilv lie 

 entered by landing from a boat in fair weather. This cave is ver}^ large and o])cn, w itii 

 sand at the bottom, sloping upwards for a considerable distance at a sliar[) aiii;le. 'I'lic 

 end of this cave, judging from the tracks oT divers Genets or Striped Cals [^I'ircrra). 

 seems to be the regular dining-room of those animals; for whenever 1 have visilrd llic 

 place it was covered with the tail-feathers and pinions of numbers of JIock-Marliiis, 

 mingled with those of a good many Swifts, Hock-Doves, and a 'i^qw Lesser Kestrels." 



According to ]\[r. Tait, the species is "resident in Portugal all the year round, luit 

 ]);u-iially migratory witliin it. The Crag-Swallow iiKiki's its nest in the pi-cciiiilous clilis 

 ol' tlie inland serras, and i I'niind one on a clill' nf llic Al)ilurur:i, ;il)n\r .Mrlrcs. on ihr 

 right bank of the Dovu'o. In sha|)<' it rcsonibirs that (if the House-Swallow; it was 



