as apart from the continent. The vast tract of land called the Cape Flats, together with 

 Table Bay on the one hand and False Bay on the other, quite shut it off from the main- 

 land, so to speak ; and to aid in this isolation the mainland ends in an abrupt precipitous 

 wall of mountains which are only to be passed in one or two jjlaijes. Doubtless the 

 Peninsula of Table Mountain was once an island, and ' Table ' and ' Palse ' Bays part 

 of a strait between. As soon as the hills are reached on the opposite side of Table 

 Bay, this Swallow occurs ; and from Swellendam Mr. Cairncross writes : — ' It is very 

 common, and builds its nest generally under the thatch of an old mill or stable, which is 

 a quieter refuge than a dwelling-house ; the egg is small and white ; and tradition says 

 that it drives the Sparrow and House-SwalloAV (//. cucullata) from their nests, occupies 

 them and breeds therein. For this reason it receives no mercy from the faruier, but the 

 eggs and young are destroyed whenever met with.' " 



Mr. Layard also found it abundant all along the route as far as Nel's Poort ; there 

 it was breeding under the rocks and under the eaves of Mr. Jackson's barn. They 

 construct a nest of mud very similar to that of H. cucullata, but without the elongated 

 neck. The eggs, three or four in number, are j)ure white : axis 7'", diam. 5'". He also 

 found it breeding on the Berg River. 



On the Orange iiiver, Dr. Bradshaw says that this Swallow is an early arrival, 

 nesting in every house. Victorin procured it at the Knysna, and it extends to the 

 eastern districts of the Cape Colony, as Mr. Layard noticed it at Grahamstown, where it 

 breeds. As before stated, it was lirst procured by Wahlberg in Natal, but we have not 

 ourselves seen any specimens from that Colony. 



In the Eastern Transvaal, Mr. Ayres has seen this Swallow at E^ustenberg, where he 

 procured specimens in May and July. He says that they are common in the winter 

 time in that locality, keeping for the most part in pairs. He also records one from the 

 Marico district in August, and he states that on a gusty morning in March, 1882, a good 

 many of these little Swallows appeared near Potchefstroom, and " flew wildly past in the 

 gloaming, apparently in a great hurry." The species was likewise met with by the late 

 Mr. Jameson's expedition on the Umvuli Iiiver. Mr. T. Ayres, who accompanied 

 Mr. Jameson, says that they were evidently breeding at the time, as there was mud on 

 the bills of the specimens shot. He writes : — " They either remain here during the 

 winter or are very early in their migration, as I saw them in the Matabele country in 

 June, where no other Swallows were to be seen." 



Mr. Andersson gives the following note on the species : — 



" Tolerably common in Dauiara Laud, where they arrive about Noveml^er ; but on 

 the Okavango Iiiver I have seen them as early as the 1st of September. They do not 

 stay any great length of time in Damara Land, in fact barely long enough to rear their 

 young. 



" In December 1863 a pair of these birds took up their abode in my dining-room 

 at Otjimbinque, where they half completed a nest and then abandoned it; another pair (at 

 least I conjectured that they Avere not the same) after a time continued the labour ; but 



