a distinct species, and his decision has been amply confirmed by the recent researches of 

 Professor Nation, to whom the rediscovery of Peale's neglected species is due. 



After remaining for nearly forty years in comparative obscurity, and being represented 

 by the single type specimen in America, Prof. Nation forwarded specimens to Dr. Sclater 

 and to tbe British Museum, from the vicinity of Lima, and communicated the interest- 

 ing notice of the bird's habits which we transcribe below. As far as is known at present, 

 this Swallow does not appear to occur anywhere but in Peru, and even there its range 

 appears to be limited, as will be seen by the following notes of Prof. Nation : — 



" Some twenty years ago an American engineer, engaged by the Peruvian Govern- 

 ment to survey the Andean valleys and coasts of Peru for railway routes, showed me a 

 letter from his friend the late Mr. John Cassin, requesting him to examine carefully the 

 rocks and cliffs for a Swallow's nest. He informed me that he had searched for it for 

 two or three years without success. Many years after, when the subject of Mr. Cassin's 

 letter had almost escaped my memory, being in the National Library of Lima, looking 

 over some books which had just arrived, I found the two volumes of Birds of the U.S. 

 Exploring Expedition, and saw the description of the Swallows obtained by Peale, near 

 Callao, in, I think, 1835, and named by him Hirundo ruficollis. With this information 

 I recommenced my search for it. 



" One would naturally suppose that if a Crag-Martin had been found in "Western 

 Peru, its breeding-place would be found in one of the Andean valleys, where everything 

 necessary for its economy abounds. Such at least was my impression, and from this 

 error I lost many years in searching for it in places which it rarely or perhaps never 

 visits. At length, in 1877, tired and fatigued by a long ramble over the hot sandy hills 

 of the neighbourhood of Lima, I came to some old ruins of a brick- or lime-works, so 

 old that the ditches that had once supplied it with water had in many places dis- 

 appeared ; it must have been abandoned for a quarter of a century at least. Here, while 

 sitting down inside the old kiln, I observed a bit of earth adhering to the wall; on 

 removing it, and blowing away carefully the loose particles of dust, I saw that it was 

 composed of pellets, and that these pellets could not have been formed by any insect. I 

 felt convinced that I had discovered the object of so many fatiguing journeys. Every 

 rock, wall, and building near the ruins was carefully examined by me, and in the course 

 of the day, about twelve miles from the city, I fell in with a large colony of Cliff- 

 Swallows. 



" On the following day I returned with a man and a ladder. The house which this 

 bird had selected for its breeding-place was a little Gothic building, used for a telegraph- 

 and railway-station, so near the line that I observed that the nests were surrounded by 

 the smoke of the engine. The man in charge of the station informed me that the 

 building had been scarcely finished before it was taken possession of by the colony. In 

 the neighbourhood there was a large sugar-plantation, with many buildings, of which 

 the roofs and walls had been taken possession of by Atticora cyanoleuca, but not a nest 

 of the Cliff-Swallow could be seen on them. On examining the nests, I found them in 



