" It is very familiar about the houses of most of our hill-stations, hut I think that it 

 constructs its nest by preference under the eaves and in the verandahs of empty houses 

 and staging bungalows, which are seldom in the hills occupied for many successive days 

 in any month. At the same time its nest is often to be seen under projecting ledges of 

 cliffs, and occasionally, where these occur, in ruined buildings. 



"The breeding-time, according to my experience, is from April to August; but I 

 have taken a dozen eggs in July to one in any other month. The nests are very similar 

 to those of its plains congener, long and retort-shaped, very neatly built with clay pellets, 

 as a rule very warmly lined first with grass or fibres and fine roots, and then with 

 various-sized feathers, of which there is often quite a large bunch. They average, how- 

 ever, much larger than those of H. erythropygia, and one I recently measured had the 

 tubular entrance 13 inches in length and the chamber more than 7 inches in diameter 

 exteriorly. 



" Mr. Brooks remarks : — ' The nest is always a half-retort, fixed to the underside 

 of an overhanging rock or cave, generally with only one entrance ; but a friend of mine, 

 Mr. Home, gives me an account of one fixed to one of the verandah rafters of a house 

 wdiere the nest has two entrances. 



" ' In the hills about Almora I found the nest several times, sometimes in open 

 exposed places, at other times where the rocks were overgrown with wood. The eggs 

 resemble those I took in the plains. The plains bird does not breed till the hot winds 

 are over, at the end of June or beginning of July; but in the hills I found eggs nearly 

 hatched in May. Others at Binsur, Mr. Ilorne informs me, have only just laid in the 

 middle of July, when I write. The hill-bird breeding in the verandahs of houses, as 

 well as in eaves, accords with the habit of the Chinese bird, which Mr. Swinhoe remarks 

 ' breeds under the roof-tops.' ' 



" Captain Hutton says : — ' This is the common Swallow of the Boon and hills, 

 arriving in the latter locality in March, and building its retort-shaped nest of mud 

 beneath the eaves of houses, against window-frames, at the side of verandah beams, and 

 other suitable situations ; the lining is of feathers. Some eggs taken on the 29th of 

 May were hard-set, but other broods were still earlier, as a nest placed against the 

 window of my room had then contained young ones for some days previously. During 

 the heavy mists of the rainy season these nests often fall by their own weight from the 

 quantity of moisture imbibed. 



" '"When far removed from houses, these birds resort to lofty rocks, beneath the 

 ledges of which the nest is placed. Its shape is flatfish hemispherical, with some varia- 

 tion, being at times more globose, with a lung neck forming the entrance passage, and 

 thus giving the nest a retort shape. When the bird has selected the spot on which it 

 intends to build, it usually deposits a white chalky substance, by way of cement, against 

 the wall or beam as the case may be, as an adhesive foundation for the subsequent wall 

 of mud. Without this precaution the weight of the material w r ould cause it to part 

 from its foundation. This same whitish earth may also be seen in the narrow neck of 



3d 



