6720 



Bird a. 



motionless wings, for great distances in a straight line; for instance, they 

 will do this for I calculate at least a quarter of a mile up and down 

 the course of our little river. They would present an easy mark if 

 they did not keep so high. If we watch them, while there is still 

 sufficient light, when they pass nearest, a slight jerk of the head from 

 side to side may be detected, but without any apparent motion of the 

 wings : it is thus, I imagine, the prey is taken. They are the 

 slowest in flight, and the most crepuscular of any of onr swifts. 

 I would remark that when the tail is expanded for a sudden curve it 

 is exactly even like that of Acanthylis, whence 1 conclude that when 

 closed it is slightly forked as that of the latter bird. I am still in 

 hopes of procuring a specimen. 



" On Hirundo poeciloma 1 have little to remark, except that they 

 do not seem so abundant here as in the lowlands ; and their appear- 

 ance, though very general, is not constant. I have not fallen in with 

 a colony hereabouts, which is remarkable, as there are the large, 

 untenanted buildings of the thrown-up sugar estate and several caves 

 close by. However, I often met, during last month (July), with flocks, 

 evidently composed in part of this year's young, perched at a great 

 height on the bare branches of forest trees, and, from the flights the 

 whole would take, they at once remind me of our English species pre- 

 paring for migration, though I certainly do not think they leave the 

 island. 



" I was extremely anxious, during my residence here, to procure 

 further information respecting the lovely little swallow you have 

 named Hirundo euchrysea. When I returned, in April, I was afraid, 

 as I rode by their winter haunts, they had gone ; but I soon found 

 this was not the case : the flocks had only dispersed into solitary 

 pairs, or at most two or three pairs together. Two pairs, I was much 

 gratified to find, were constantly hawking round this house. They 

 have a singular and very melancholy note, which may be rendered by 

 * tehee, tehee ' constantly repeated, as they wheel round the house, and 

 has become quite a part of my associations with the locality. When 

 toying, it is repeated much quicker, and more impetuously when both 

 birds skim round a tree or other object at a great rate. In the early 

 morning they perch as other swallows, on some bare, exposed twig, 

 and preen their feathers in the sun. I did not shoot more than a 

 single specimen in April, as I was anxious to ascertain where they 

 were nesting. 1 often saw them catch pieces of silk cotton, but my 

 searches were for some time in vain. At length 1 saw one enter the 

 old boiling-house. I watched for its return, and soon saw it arrive 



