13 



The nests were very large, being quite a foot or more in length. The two under the house 

 were constructed in the interval between two beams, so that they rested on tbe lower 

 beam. In the middle they were more slender, for each consisted of two nests, as it were, 

 connected by a broad passage about two inches long. There was an entrance to one nest 

 only. One of them contained two eggs, but the other was empty. 



" Later on I became acquainted with what I suppose to be their original mode of 

 nesting. I noticed several birds flying above the trees in the dense primgeval forests in 

 Kinta, and saw them entering the caves which are to be found in the limestone hills 

 which are scattered about in this district. In one of these limestone caves, which was 

 very damp, I found a number of the nests ; but all were empty, so that I suppose that 

 the proper laying time would be in May and June, and that I had happened upon a late 

 breeding pair, when I discovered the before-mentioned eggs under the house, as narrated 

 above. 



" The nests in the cave were less distinctly divided into two portions. The further 

 they were in the cave, the broader and longer were the nests, while those nearer to the 

 entrance varied in shape according to the accommodation afforded by the crevices or 

 shelves of the rocks. All these empty nests were soft and friable, and easily broken, 

 while those I found beneath the house, and indeed all those recently constructed, were 

 very strong. 



" The eggs were longish ovals, pure white, with little gloss. They are larger than 

 those of H. daurica, to unspotted specimens of which they are very similar. The grain, 

 however, is much coarser in the eggs of H. badia, and shows very distinctly the rough 

 cross-lines which are characteristic of the eggs of many Swallows. They measured 

 23-0 mm. x 15-6, and 23*9 mm. X 159. Weight 17 cgs." 



The following note occurs in Mr. Oates's edition of Mr. Hume's 'Nests and Es^s of 

 Indian Birds ' : — " Mr. J. Darling, Jun., records the following note regarding the nidi- 

 fication of Hirtmdo badia : ' The first bird of this species I shot in Kossoom was one of 

 a flock that appeared from the east and flew straight away westwards. I afterwards 

 found them in considerable numbers in a large limestone cave, in which they were 

 breeding later on. 



" ' Again, in Poongah, I saw numbers flying about the limestone hills that surround 

 the town. Their habits and voice are almost similar to those of H. javanica. The nest is 

 built of pellets of mud stuck to the under surface of some rock in the shape of a half- 

 goblet with a very long neck, and is lined with coarse grass-roots and feathers.' ' 



For the geographical distribution of this species, vide infra, Plate 81 [Map]. 



4f 



