dwellings. The eggs of this species are white, spotted with rufous hrown, and are very 

 like those of Hirundo rustical Mr. E. Cavendish Taylor found a nest on the 25th of 

 January in the grottoes of Beni-Hassan, containing two eggs nearly ready to hatch. 

 This is an earlier date than that given by Capt. Shelley. 



The British Museum contains specimens collected by Sir Samuel Baker up the Xile, 

 and by Mr. Francis Galton at the Fifth Cataract. The late Marquis Antinori did not 

 meet with the species actually in Shoa, but he procured specimens at Zeila, in the Gulf 

 of Aden. At Aden itself, Mr. Wyatt noticed it flying over the " Tanks ; " and Major 

 Yerbury, in his essay on the birds of that locality, says : — "A Crag-Martin is with us 

 all the year round and breeds in the caves." He sent a specimen to the British Museum. 

 Mr. Wyatt often saw the species when on the Sinai survey. It was common on the 

 lowlands in the winter ; and towards the end of February, when spring in the desert 

 may be said to commence, it ascended the mountains, where it was seen hawking for flies 

 over the "retem " bushes, which are in full blossom at that time of the year. In April 

 he met with it in AVady Ithm, along the highlands of Edom, between Akabah and Petra. 

 Canon Tristram found it in Palestine, where it is " entirely confined to the Dead Sea 

 basin, in which it is sedentary. Bound the sea itself it is the only species, but at the 

 north end it mingles with C. riqwstris, and they both breed in the same caves in Jebel 

 Quarantania. It is essentially a desert species, as C. riqjestris is a mountain one. In 

 habits it differs from its congener, sweeping the desert plains rather than soarim;- over 

 the mountain cliffs." 



Turning eastwards, we next find the species at Fao, in the Persian Gulf, Avhence 

 Mr. W. D. Cumming has sent specimens to the British Museum. 



Mr. Blanford obtained this Martin at Pasin and Gwadar on the Mekrau coast ; and 

 the Hume collection also contains specimens from the Mekran coast, from Khoce Batt 

 and Gwadar, collected in January and February. Mr. W. T. Blanford found it common 

 throughout Baluchistan ; but he never saw it on the Persian highlands, where, he says, 

 it appeared to l)e entirely replaced by C. rupestris. 



The birds from Sind were named C. pallida by Mr. Hume, but Mr. Blanford, h;u iiii;- 

 compared his specimens from Sind and Baluchistan with others from Xorth-eastcni 

 Africa, established their identity. Mr. Hume was, however, the first to pul)lisli the 

 occurrence of this sjwcics in Sind. He "found it very common along the Gaj, tin- 

 Nurrinai, and other small streams that issue from the bare stony hills that divide Sind 

 from Khelat." He met witli it again, Avith the Common Swift, ofi' the headland of 

 Minora, at the mouth of tlie Kurrachcc harbour, and in similar localities aloni;- tlic 

 Alekran coast. C(jlonel E. A. Butler, whose lieautiful specimens from Kurniehcc arc in 

 the Hume collection, records it as "a cold-weather visitant to Sind, wlici'c it is mil un- 

 common alontr the coast. It is also met with in Cutch." 



The Hume collection also contains a male obtained by Sir Oliver St. John ncai' 

 Kandahar, on the .'Jrd of May, 1880. 



^Ir. Blanford ubserves : — " C. obaolcld is far from l)L'iiig so tliorough a Crag-Martin 



