“NESTING OF THE INDIAN HIRUNDINES.” 47 
retired spots. Another favourite site for their nests is the space 
between the rafters of a stable roof or verandah as well as under the 
eaves of houses. Great numbers of them may now be seen breeding 
in the verandah, under the Commisssry-General’s offices in the Fort. 
Their nests, which take a considerable time to construct, are com. 
posed of agglutinated saliva mixed with a few feathers and straws. 
They are of no particular shape, being at times long and narrow, 
occasionally almost round, but most often they are of a very irregular 
oblong shape. Tbe eggs, three in number, are long narrow ovals, 
of a pure glossless white. The birds seem to be always breeding, 
for I see from my notes that there is not a month in the year in 
which I have not taken eggs or found nestlings more or less callow. 
I have never seen any Indian eggs of the Alpine Swift, 
but Mr. Davidson, of Mallizaum, showed me both nests and 
nestlings which he had obtained from the mountains in that district. 
He says that the birds breed in deep clefts and fissures of almost 
inaccessible rocks. On several occasions he made attempts to 
secure their eggs. These places are always inaccessible from below. 
and generally it is impossible to get on the cliffs above them, so as 
to be able to let down a rope. In one or two places, however, they 
breed on cliffs, above which people can walk with safety, and the 
Bheels get down to them in the same way as they do to take honey. 
A rope ladder is constructed of pieces of bamboo about fifteen inches 
long, tied between two strong ropes, which are fastened to a very 
thick rope.» The steps are two and a half feet apart, so that 
a long ladder does not weigh very much, The thick rope is tied to 
a tree if possible, if not it is held by a number of men and the rope 
ladder hung over the precipice. A Bheel then ties a light rope 
under his arms, and with the end held by people above who pay 
out the rope, rans down the ladder which swings about in the wind. 
In taking the nest of the Alpine Swift, however, the difficulty 
lies in the fact that they breed in fissures stretching upwards 
into overhanging cliffs. Many of these places the man cannot 
get at, or even if he can the nests are out of his reach. During 
the rains the people refused to try at all, on the ground that at 
that scason the overhanging cliff would probably fall on them. 
The specimen of nest shows where it was fastened to both sides of 
the fissure. It is a very solid structure in comparison to that of the 
Common Indian Swift. The Palm Swift is, as I have already said, 
found throughout the plains of India, wherever the toddy tree 
