Dr. Guillemard, in his account of the birds of Cyprus, writes as follows : — ■" At one 

 place I noticed a solitary Hirundo rufula, a species which I did not again come across 

 until long afterwards. Although it is, perhaps, to be found in each of the Districts of 

 the island, it is very local. It occurs at Eamagusta, at the ruins of Bellapais, at Kyrenia, 

 in the pass above Lanarka tou Lapethou, and near the village of Poli ; but at all these 

 places it seemed to frequent the immediate neighbourhood of its home, and never go far 

 a-field .... On the battlements of the fortress of Famagusta I shot Hirundo rufula, 

 and found its nest in a rock-hewn cavern, attached to the smooth flat roof. In general 

 this is the situation adopted, but sometimes the back of the nest is built against a beam, or 

 against a wall where it joins the ceiling. The entrance is a short tunnel, with a slightly 

 covered lip. The eggs are pure white, and, in this case, were six in number." 



He further observes: — "I camped below the ruins of Bellapais, a magnificent 

 semimonastic building of the Lusignan period, with a great part of the beautiful cloisters 

 still standing, and spent most of the following day in photographing it. Hirundo rufula 

 was in great abundance here, and in a large hall, which was doubtless the refectory, 

 there were many nests. Most of them were inaccessible, but from one I took some 

 eggs, no doubt of a second clutch. The Commissioner of the Kyrenia district, with 

 whom I was staying later, informed me that a pair had raised three broods of young 

 ones in one season in a nest built in his bedroom." 



Lord Liiford also noticed the species iu Cyprus, and writes as follows : — " Very 

 common in certain localities and, as Guillemard states, seldom to be met with at any 

 considerable distance from its breeding-haunts. I only met with this very beautiful and 

 conspicuous Swallow at a certain spot amongst the hills not far from the south coast of 

 the Horn of Cyprus and at Eamagusta; but Guillemard found it in many other 

 localities, notably at the ruins of Bellapais ; he mentions having noticed a solitary 

 individual of this bird on March 6th, 1887, between Pera-Khorio and Tochui." 



Eor the geographical distribution of tliis species, vide infra, Plate 81 [Map]. 



HIRUNDO DAURICA [antea, V . 357]. 

 Add:— 



Hirundo daurica, Sharpe & Wyatt, Monogr. Hirund. pt. xiv. (1890). 

 Cecropis daurica, Tacz. P. Z. S. 1887, p. 599, 188S, p. 402 ; id. Mem. Acad. Imp. 

 Sci. St. Petersb. (7) xxxix. p. 182 (1891). 



Dr. Taczanowski says that this species is widely spread over Western Siberia, from the 

 Irtisch river in Dauria, through the Amoor and Ussuri countries as far as the sea of 

 Japan. Mr. Godlewski states that directly it arrives in Dauria it at once begins 

 to construct its nest, over which it spends a great deal of trouble, as it is large in 



