pellets of mud closely packed together. I counted 110 less than sixty in a square yard 

 against an overhanging bank. Each nest is a half-sphere, with a small hole for entrance. 

 The Boers tell me that formerly these birds were unknown to them, and when first seen 

 they appeared in small numbers, which is not the case now, as I saw hundreds hawking 

 about near Sandport. I calculate that at least two thousand will be hatched at this 

 place this season." 



According to Mr. Lavard these Swallows also bred near Sidburv, about twenty-eight 

 miles from Grahamstown, in 1870 ; and about the same time Mr. T. C. Atmore 

 forwarded to him several specimens from the neighbourhood of Eland's Post. According 

 to Colonels Butler and Feilden and Captain Beid, the species was very numerous in the 

 Newcastle district of Natal, breeding in October. 



Dr. H. Exton has sent specimens of adults and young birds from the neighbourhood 

 of Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State, and, as already mentioned, Mr. Ayres has 

 found the species breeding in the Transvaal near Potchefstroom. 



Colonels Butler and Eeilden and Captain Beid give the following account of the 

 nesting of this species : — " The nests are large globular mud structures, very similar to 

 those of Chelidon urbica, with a hole near the top, and warmly lined with feathers 

 matted together. As a rule they are built under cliffs and rocks overhanging small 

 streams from one to nine feet above the surface of the water, and are packed closely 

 together. In some instances the entrance-hole slightly projects, but never so much as 

 to form a passage, as in the nests of Hirundo cncullata. In a colony at the Ingagane 

 Biver, visited by Beid, there were as many as 200 nests together in one clump, and 

 seA'eral smaller ones close by, quite four hundred nests in all, while in others there were 

 not more than fifteen or twenty. Three eggs appear to be the regular number, for in 

 one nest only did we meet with four. The eggs, which vary much in size, are white, 

 rather finely spotted and blotched with reddish brown and chestnut, or inky purple, the 

 markings being rather more numerous towards the obtuse end. We took them in 

 October and November. The birds were first noticed about their nesting-places at the 

 end of August. They appear to resort to the same place to breed every year. It would 

 appear that they make use of the ' daaga,' or cement-like mixture of which the ants 

 form their hills, in the construction and repair of their nests ; one was shot by Beid, 

 sitting on the top of a broken ant-hill, with its mouth full of this material, which, from 

 its binding properties, is collected and used as mortar throughout the upper districts of 

 the colony." 



Of the eggs sent by Mr. Ortlepp, Mr. Layard observes as follows :— " The eggs sent 

 are very beautiful, being a delicate white, tinged with the faintest blush of junk, spotted, 

 chiefly in a ring near the larger end, with different sized spots of various shades of brown, 

 verditer, and even yellow." 



The descriptions are taken from specimens in the British Museum, and the figures 

 have been drawn from an adult bird procured by Colonel Butler near Newcastle, the 

 young one from a specimen shot near Bloemfontein by Dr. Exton. 



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