6 



relating his experiences of this Swallow, says : ' You remark that the Indian Cliff- 

 Swallow builds its nests in clusters of from 20 to 200. It may therefore interest you to 

 know that the only group of their nests I have observed consisted of about 600 nests. 

 It was on the river at Akola, Berar, below the bund. There was a pool at the place, so 

 that unless heavy rain had flooded the river the water was, in wet and dry season alike, 

 breast-hi^h. The nests were therefore much more difficult of access than one would 

 have supposed, looking at the almost dry condition of the channel below the bund. The 

 lowest rows of nests Avere only a foot or so above the surface of the water, but on wading 

 up I could not see into a single nest, and could not reach more than a few with my 

 hand. The nests were placed under the wreck of an old bridge, and were quite inaccessible 

 from above. The birds were occupied about their breeding twice a year, but either they 

 had two broods each time or some of theui delayed much longer than others to lay their 

 eggs. At any rate, the period between the time the flock returned to their breeding- 

 place and the time when the old and young birds were scattered over the country was 

 about two months. I regret that I was very negligent in making exact notes of their 

 nidification ; the following are all I have : 



" ' 7th Jan., 1870. Young birds just fledged. 



" ' 17th Jan., 1870. Scores more have left the nest. 



" ' 22nd June, 1870. Swallows have come back to their nests in great numbers. 



" ' 5th Jan., 1871. Swallows breeding. 



" ' 9th Eeb., 1871. This morning I waded into the water and examined a number of 

 the nests. I first put my fingers into those with short necks, and found them all empty. 

 I then broke open five nests that had necks 6 inches long. Of these two were empty, 

 but lined with straw, feathers, and rags ; two more contained young birds ; the fifth had 

 three white eggs. It is worth recording that for some weeks past young birds have been 

 leaving the nest, the old ones feeding them on the wing. The nests are made entirely 

 of pellets of clay, all exactly alike and as large as dry peas. I lately watched about 

 twenty of these Swallows building ; they took the mud from the edge of the water about 

 ten yards from the nests, and were in a tremendous bustle. They took several pecks at 

 the mud to make each pellet, and stayed five seconds on the ground each time.' 



" Colonel Butler says : — ' I have eggs of the Cliff-Swallow taken at Sattara in 1875. 

 Some are pure white, the others are marked all over with pale yellowish brown.' 



"Capt. E. B. Shopland, I.M., found this Swallow breeding at Akyab. He says: — 

 ' I found about ten nests in April under a bridge ; some contained young birds, others 

 fresh eggs. The nests were composed of mud and lined with grass, casuarina-leaves, and 

 feathers. The greatest number of eggs in any one nest was four, and they were white 

 speckled with tw T o shades of brown, chiefly round the larger end.' " 



For the geographical distribution of this species, vide sv/prcb, Plate 85 [Map]. 



