18 



the country tlirougliout the year, for we once obtained an immature specimen in the 

 Delta on the 25th Pehruary. In Nuhia it appears to he the only Swallow, there 

 replacing S. savignii, for on our return journey in 1870 we did not meet with a single 

 specimen of the latter bird south of Girgeh, where in the begiiming of May these two 

 S23ecies were equally abundant." 



The late Baron von Heuglin states : — " In the beginning of March to early in 

 liay, and between August and October, this bird is frequently seen in companies on 

 migration, often mixing with other species along the Nile and the Red Sea, and even on 

 the true steppes. On the 15th of November, 1857, I even observed on the Somali coast 

 a flight of migrating Chimney-Swallows. Amongst the Chimney-Swallows which are 

 found during the summer in the E-ed Sea, I have never observed H. cahlrica." Von 

 Heuglin observed the Common Swallow near Tadjura, and Mr. Blanford says that it 

 abounded on the shores of Annesley Bay in the middle of June. Neither of the above- 

 named naturalists, however, states positively that they found the species nesting. 



Mr. Wyatt did not notice this Swallow in the Sinaitic Peninsula before the 6th of 

 April, when he sjoent two days by the side of the Gulf of Akabah. He then saw several 

 coming from across the gulf or following it, all of them going in a northerly direction, 

 making for Palestine by tbe Arabah. 



Colonel Yerbury states that the Swallow visits Aden in rough weather ; it may come 

 at any time in the year, but only remains a few days. Lieut. H. E. Barnes writes : — 

 " The Chimney-Swallow is not very common, and, as a rule, is only found immediately 

 after rough weather ; but some few do remain to breed, as I found a nest containing 

 three eggs under the verandah in the upper story of one of the hotels at Steamer Point. 

 The appearance of these birds is not confined to any period ; I find from my notes that I 

 have observed them in May, July, August, and December." 



Tlie late Consul Swinhoe states that on one of his voyages to China he noticed a 

 few Swallows near Aden on the 5th of November, " apparently bound for the Indian 

 coast." That one migration-line of the Common Swallow is along the Nile Valley 

 seems certain, as it has been obtained by Emin Pasha at Wadelai on the 30th of 

 September, and at Lado on the 30th of October. Captain Shelley has also recorded it as 

 found by Sir John Kirk at Lamo in East Africa, on the Pangaiii Piver, and in Ugogo. 

 The late Dr. Eischer met with the species at Maurui and Ukaramo, and again at 

 Karatschongo on the 2nd of March, during his last expedition to the Victoria Nyanza. 

 Dr. Bohm records the Swallows as cocurring along the Lualaba in great flocks in October. 



" To Southern Africa," Mr. Layard writes, " the European Swallow is a regular and 

 common visitant to the Cape Colony, throughout the whole of which it is distributed. 

 In 1867 the first bird arrived in Cape Town on the 27tli of July, and we have noticed a 

 few stragglers as late as the 2ud of April. Although the species stays with us for the 

 greater part of the year, it does not aj)pear to breed, and we believe that all the young 

 birds which are seen in S. Africa are not natives but are visitors from the north." 

 Captain Shelley says that it was by far the most abundant Swallow in Cape Town, and, 



