Hub. Natal and Swazi Land in S.E. Africa up to Mashoona Land; West Africa, from Benguela to the 

 Niger; N.E. Africa, the Gazelle river district and Abyssinia. 



This Swallow bears a great resemblance to the youug of the Wire-tailed Swallow 

 (Mirundo smitldi), which also has a brown head ; but the latter has the whole of the lower 

 back and rump blue like the mantle, and the under wing-coverts white, whereas in 

 H. griseopyga the rump is brown and the under wing-coverts brownish, even in the young 

 stage. The young of H. smithii also shows a slight indication of the white spot on the 

 tail-feathers, of which there is no trace in S. griseopyga at any age. 



The present species was discovered in Natal by the late Professor Wahlberg ; but we 

 have never seen a specimen from this Colony, though Mr. T. E. Buckley procured one 

 in Swazi Land. During Mr. Jameson's expedition to Mashoona Land, Mr. T. Ayres 

 says that he observed these Swallows on the Quae-Quae Eiver in October, hunting the 

 trees for their insect food, but they were not plentiful. Senhor Auchieta has met with 

 the species at Caconda in Benguela. 



In West Africa it occurs from the Congo to the Niger, having been met with by 

 M. Petit at Mayumba, on the first-named river, in April. He bestowed on it the new 

 name of H. poucheti ; but as he kindly sent a specimen for us to examine, we were able 

 to determine its identity with the present species. The late M. Jules Verreaux described 

 specimens from Gaboon as Atticora melbina, and DuChaillu obtained it at Cape Lopez 

 and on the Camma Pi,ivcr. 



The late Mr. W. A. Porbes mentions his having obtained a Swallow at Egga, which 

 he believed to be of this species, but no specimens were in his Niger collection. 

 Mr. Prank Nicholson, however, has recently presented a nestling to the British Museum, 

 which had been obtained by a friend of his high up the river Niger, and which we 

 identify as the young of this species. In North-eastern Africa, the late Baron von 

 Heuglin states that he twice met with the species in two very different localities, viz. 

 in Jan. 1862 on meadows and pasture-lands at Gondar, and in the same month in 1864i 

 on the streams which extend from Wau to the lake-region of the Gazelle Eiver, in the 

 steppes. In Abyssinia it was mingled with flocks of Cotlle paludicola and Cecropis 

 senegalensis, in Central Africa only with the last-named species. The flight is swift and 

 generally vigorous, and at no great height. Their note he does not remember to have 

 heard. 



The specimen described, and figured in the accompanying Plate, is in the British 

 Museum, from Gaboon. 



