14 



freely about the valley in April and May ; young birds, just able to fly, are often seen 

 about the middle of June." 



Prom Native Sikbim also vre liave only seen true S. rustica, but in Sikbim not only 

 the latter bird, but intermediate specimens bava been procured, and the same may be 

 said of Assam, Sylhet, Manipur, Pegu, Tenasserim, and the Andaraaus. To all these 

 countries the tyjjical H. (jntturalis is also a winter visitor. The birds which Colonel 

 Godwin- Austen recorded as //. cahlrica breeding near Imphal, the caj)ital of Manipur, 

 in February and March, are S. rustica, as we have determined by an examination 

 of the specimens kindly lent to us by Colonel Godwin- Austen. 



In his jjaper on the birds of the Lucknow Civil division Mr. George Pteid writes : — 

 " Abundant during the cold season, making its appearance in October and departing at 

 tlie commencement of the hot weather. A few stragglers may even be found in the 

 early part of May. Here, however, it is never the household pet that it is in England, 

 frequenting for the most part open country, especially in the vicinity of jheels, and it is 

 not unfrequently found skimming over water in vast numbers. It sometimes perches 

 on the bare branches of trees and in some localities probably spends the night on them. 

 It also frequents the telegraph-wires, but has not, that I know of, any liking for native 

 villages, though in towns it gets attached to mosques, minarets, and old buildings, about 

 which many may always be found." 



Colonel Swinhoe and Lieut. Barnes state that it is common near Mhow during the 

 cold season, appearing about the middle of March and leaving towards the end of 

 Pebruary. Their specimens are determined by us to be H. gntturaUs. The specimens in 

 the Hume collection from Paipur appear to belong to the intermediate form, but true 

 H. rustica occurs near Etawah, Saagor, in Kandeish, the Decean, and Ahmednuggur, but 

 H. gutturalis also visits the same localities, as we have examined specimens from 

 Ivamptee and Mhow. Professor Yalentine Ball records Swallows from the following 

 localities : — " Midnapur, Manbhum, Lohardugga, Sirguja, Sambalpur, north of Mahanadi ; 

 Nowagarh and Karial; Godaveri Valley." 



In Western Khandeish Mr. Davidson says that the Swallows are common cold-weather 

 visitants but local, and the same is said of the whole Decean. They w^ere common near 

 Khandala, according to the Pev. S. B. Pairbank. Mr. Vidal says that they came to Pat- 

 nagiri in large numbers in November 1879. Swallows are found throughout Mysore and 

 the Wynaad as well as in the Nilghiris, but probably do not ascend the hills to any great 

 elevation, according to Mr. Hume, who noticed several at the foot of the Coonoor Ghat. 



With regard to the Swallow in the island of Ceylon, Colonel Legge writes : — " It 

 arrives usually in the north of the island about the second or third w^eek in September, 

 the young birds coming in first. The period of its arrival is, however, somewhat 

 irregular, and perhaps depends uj)on the break up of the south-west monsoon to some 

 extent. Its numbers are increased considerably in about a fortnight after its first 

 appearance, and it then begins to spread southward, but does not do so always as 

 regularly as might be expected. Mr. Parker has observed it at Puttalam as early 

 as the 20th September one year, when my earliest date noted down at Coloiuho was 



