186 CRAG SWALLOW. 



Bigorre and Grenoble. M. Gerbe informs me that it is 

 abundant in the department of the Basses-Alpes, near 

 Moustiers, and in the Var among some of the high 

 mountain rocks which border the River Argent. M. 

 Crespon reports it from the department of Gard; and 

 it is seen in its passage in some other spots in Provence, 

 Languedoc, Anjou, and the department of Isere. It 

 builds among the clefts in the anfractuosities of the 

 rocks, making a nest of tempered clay, small straws, 

 and feathers. It lays five or six white eggs, spotted 

 with red, dark rust, or brown." 



"This species flies more slowly than its congeners, and 

 always in regions most elevated. It almost always seeks 

 its food in an undulatory flight above the rocks it 

 inhabits. It arrives in Italy and in the south of France 

 before the other Swallows, and leaves last. M. Gerbe 

 thinks that some individuals hybernate in certain parts 

 of Piedmont, near the borders of France; because when 

 the winter is not severe, it is not rare to see them 

 in the months of January and February flying above 

 the mouth of the Var, and at Nice above the river 

 which passes through that city. As this species moults 

 before it emigrates, which is peculiar to it, M. Gerbe 

 also suggests that those individuals which appear in a 

 season where generally they are not seen again, are 

 the young ones of the last brood, and that a retarded 

 moult has obliged them to remain in our climate." 



The male and female have the upper plumage ash 

 grey, with the wings and tail darker. Throat light 

 fawn, gradually becoming darker on the chest and 

 abdomen; under wing coverts dark smoky brown; under 

 tail coverts hair brown; the tail feathers, with the 

 exception of the two median, and the two external, 

 have an oval white spot on their inner web ; beak 



