imrlerneath as in the adults, but the under wing-coverts washed with pale rufous-buff like the 

 throat. 



Hab. North-eastern Africa, southwards from Bogos-land to the Zanzibar region on the east coast. West 

 Africa, from Senegambia to the Niger. 



This is tbe northern representative of the large Hirundo alhlgularis of the Cape. In 

 North-eastern Africa Von Heuglin says that it occurs from 20°-21° north latitude south- 

 wards along the Nile and in Abyssinia, i*eaching in the latter country to at least 10,000 

 feet ; it is less common on the Red Sea. In Bogos-land it makes its appearance with 

 the first summer rain and stays until December. Mr. W. T. Blanford, who was the first 

 naturalist to discriminate tbe species, met with it at Barakit in Tigre, during tbe 

 Abyssinian expedition. Mr. W. Jesse obtained specimens at Kokai and Bejook in the 

 Bogos country, and the late Marquis xlntinori at Keren in the same country. According 

 to the latter observer, it arrives in Bogos-land in May and leaves in August. It does not 

 seem to have been met with by the expedition to Shoa commanded by the same intrepid ■ 

 explorer. 



In East Africa it was first obtained by the late Dr. Hildebrandt, who procured 

 specimens at Mombasa, and says that it was sparsely spread over the whole country 

 visited by him. Dr. Fischer also met with it in the same district, where it is called by 

 the natives " M'harui." Tbe latter naturalist also prociu'ed the species at Malindi, and 

 during his last expedition he says that it was found on the steppes between Kilima'njaro 

 and Maeru mountain. It was the only Swallow seen by him everywhere from the coast 

 to the Naiwascha Lake, and it only occurred singly. He found it nesting at Maurui at 

 the end of February, where a pair had built in the hole of a tree-stump standing out 

 of the water. Tlie late Dr. Bohm believed that he saw the present species at Zanzibar. 



According to Dr. Viertlialer, it breeds near Kbartoom in August and September, 

 building its nest against the ceilings of rooms, exactly as H. rustica does in Europe, 

 the nest being open above. It lays three eggs, which are white spotted with rufous. He 

 speaks of this species as the common Swallow of North-eastern Africa, and states that it 

 arrives in March and leaves at the beginning of November. He found it breedina: 

 northwards from New Dongola, but not in Northern Nubia or Upper Egypt, where its 

 place is taken by Hirundo samgnil. The nest resembles that of II. rastica, and the eggs 

 are similarly coloured. 



Dr. Hartmann (J. f. O. 1884, p. 152) met witli two pairs of this Swallow breeding 

 in a hole in an Adansonia tree. The nests Avere plastered together with the mud from 

 the Fulali, and contained respectively three and four spotted eggs. In the parts of 

 Equatorial Africa visited by the above naturalist, this elegant little bird was the House- 

 Swallow of the country ; and as it could not always find suitable breeding-places in the 

 low straw huts of the Fundj Negroes, it often occupied the holes of trees as well as 

 clefts in the rocks, in wliich it placed its mud-built nest. 



