3 
a fruit- and vegetable-garden. The day was cold, but clear. On revisiting the island about a 
month afterwards, on the 26th January, I again met with them the first thing on landing. On 
neither occasion was any other species to be seen, nor do any of the Swallows or Swifts generally 
winter here. Again, at the interval of about another month (on the 20th of February), I observed 
a specimen in the Malta market.” He also gives (Ibis, 1865, p. 464) the following memorandum 
from Dr. Leith Adams, dated Gozo, February 22nd:—‘ A pair of Rock-Swallows have been 
sporting about the fort and sunny side of the square all day. February 23rd.— Weather very 
cold; even snow fell to-day at the Giant’s Tower; but nevertheless I saw a flock of some ten 
Rock-Swallows sporting about in the gorge of Schlendi and around the cliffs to the westward. 
I have noticed this Swallow about Rabato in summer, but have not been able to confirm its 
identity till yesterday. I think, perhaps, individuals remain throughout the year in Gozo.” 
Lord Lilford met with it in the Ionian Islands, where it is, he writes (Ibis, 1860, p. 234), 
“common and resident in Epirus, haunting the high and precipitous mountains of the interior 
in summer, and coming down to the coast in the winter months.” 
Lindermayer says that it is resident in Greece, inhabiting in the summer the rocks and 
mountains, and descending to the plains during the winter, when they are met with in the 
swamps and the plains near the coast; and Mr. Seebohm, whose notes on its habits will be 
found below, speaks of it also as resident in Greece. Dr. Kriiper writes (J. f. O. 1860, p. 282) 
that it is much rarer in Greece than H. urbica and /. rustica, and about equal in numbers to 
H. rufula. He first saw it in 1858, when exploring the Klissura, where in a precipice, amongst 
Jackdaws, Rock-Doves, Swifts, and Martins, a single pair had a nest. In the summer of 1859 
he repeatedly found its nest in the Parnassus, and describes it as resembling that of HZ. rustica 
in mode of construction, being open above, but much smaller in size. He found one nest in a 
small cave in the rock, in which a Chough had a nest, and was feeding her young. Dr. Kriiper 
says that all the naturalists assured him that it is a resident in Greece, but he himself never saw 
it in the winter. He found two breeding-places of this bird in Naxos, but speaks of it as rare 
there. It is found in the mountains of Austria; and the Ritter von Tschusi Schmidhofen 
(J. f. O. 1870, p. 263) says that he observed it on the western shores of the Garda lake, near the 
town of Riva; Mr. A. Rindfleisch observed six or eight at the ‘“‘ Engelswand,” between the 
villages of Oetz and Umhausen, in September 1853, and also saw it at the Martinswand, near 
Innsbruck. Mr. Luigi Althammer, in his list of the birds of the Tyrol, speaks of it as arriving 
later and leaving earlier than H/. rustica, breeding in the most precipitous places; and, according 
to Bruhin, it breeds annually in the Vorarlberg, close to the ‘‘ Hangender Stein,” near Bludenz. 
Von Tschusi Schmidhofen further states (Ibis, 1872, p. 156) that two years subsequently to the 
time he met with it on the Garda Lake, as above recorded, he found its nest in the same locality. 
I possess no information as to its occurrence in Turkey or Southern Russia, except that Von 
Nordmann refers to it as inhabiting the coasts of the province of Ghouriel, and thinks it probable 
that it may occur in the Crimea. 
Mr. Seebohm and Dr. Kriiper found it tolerably common in Asia Minor; and Canon 
Tristram met with it in Palestine, where it is, he says (P. Z. 8. 1864, p. 443), “a permanent 
resident in the wadys adjoining the Ghor, and in the deep ravines of the Litany River. Very 
B15 
