8746 



Birds, 



great mess about our small bouse, and nearly drove us wild witb tbeir 

 loud, discordant twittering. In a ramble one spring morning, at 

 dawn, I saw large numbers of these swallows perching on some high 

 bamboos. The sun was fast dispelling the thick night-fog that still 

 hung low and heavy, and the birds seemed in high spirits at the return 

 of fine weather. They fluttered from branch to branch, and as they 

 regained a footing rocked backwards and forwards before recovering 

 their balance. It was in April, and they were all paired, the male 

 being always distinguishable by his larger size and longer tail. In 

 pairs they sang, or rather twittered, their notes kee-wee-kee, like 

 sounds that might be produced by some metal instrument sadly out of 

 tune. The male loudly sang his bar, and the female followed on 

 a lower key. The male then fluttered his wings and began again ; 

 the female followed suit. In this manner the whole clump of tall, 

 graceful bamboos looked alive with these birds, and resounded with 

 their strange notes. Some pairs would start away and pursue one 

 another, at first with a smooth, skimming flight ; then in an excited 

 manner they would stagger along, and, fluttering their wings, sing 

 lustily their notes of love. 



18. Cotyle sinensis, J. E. Gray, III. Ind. Zool. t. 35, fig. 3. This 

 small, gray-breasted, short-tailed species is a summer visitant to all 

 suitable localities in the South of China, and is also found in all parts 

 of Formosa, frequenting the steep sandy banks of rivers, into which it 

 bores long galleries, constructing at the end of these its cup-shaped 

 nest, and depositing therein three white eggs. Its winter migrations 

 extend to the plains of Hindostan, where, curiously enough, it is 

 reported by observers to nest again in the heart of winter (see Hors- 

 field and Moore's ' List of Birds in the East Indian Museum,' i. p. 96). 

 This is, I believe, the only well-authenticated fact recorded of this 

 long-suspected habit in migratory birds. It visits Formosa in April, 

 and leaves again in October. Some fifteen miles up the Tamsuy 

 River, in a long sand-bank, I found several rows of perforations made 

 by this bird. The birds were flying in and out of them in great num- 

 bers, so we stopped to examine them. Most of the holes were out of 

 arm's reach ; and as the bank was very steep, and composed of loose 

 mud, we had great difficulty in establishing a footing. We managed, 

 however, after much trouble, to insert our arms into several of them. 

 The holes were in all stages of progress, some only just begun, others 

 scarcely a foot deep ; in some the eggs were hard-set, in others quite 

 freshly laid. The holes ran into the bank with only a slight inclina- 

 tion from the horizontal. In all instances they turned a little to the 



