standing on the brink of one of those Interesting places. Several have 
perhaps been resting on a dead log half covered with weeds and water, or 
sitting on the dried mud of the bed of one of these small reservoirs, and 
finding their retreat suddenly invaded, glide off on the wing, uttering their 
curious guttural notes, at the same time that, from the same cause, half a 
dozen lazy looking but watchful crocodiles rush, with a mighty splash, into 
the muddy p'ool. 
Such haunts as these literally teem with insect life, and I have seen 
scores of these swallows hawking about a small water-hole of about half an 
acre in extent, which was all that remained of what was, in the wet season, 
a fine sheet of water. 
Its flight is slower than that of most swallows, and it often sails along 
on outstretched wings, now and then making a sort of circle in its course. 
In the South it is fond of frequenting paddy fields made in the narrow 
glades lying beneath the low wooded hills characteristic of that part. 
NIDI PIC ATI ON 
The Red Bellied Swallow breeds in the North, West, South, and entire cen¬ 
tre of the island from March till June, constructing a Martin-like nest in 
outhouses, open dwellings, or under culverts and bridges. The nest is com¬ 
posed externally of mud and lined with feathers; it is large, and the entr¬ 
ance is situated usually at the end of a spout running from three to four 
Inches along the plank at the top of the nest; some have nearly a circular 
orifice at the top. One which I frequently observed during the course of 
its construction was built in a merchant’s office in Galle, the familiar 
little architect taking no notice whatever of the clerks, who wrote at tneir 
desks just underneath; it was completely built in about three weeks, the 
spout being added last, and after this 7 as fiwished one of the pair took up 
its position inside the nest, and received the feathers brought by its mate 
to the entrance. 
The eggs are either two or three in number, and soiae brought to me as be¬ 
longing to this bird were pure white, pointed ovals in shape, much resem¬ 
bling those of Cypselus Affinls; they measure .85 by-.56 inches. 
The figure in the-drawing'represented as resting on a mossy rock is that 
of a male shot at Pan-kulam tank, Trlncomalie. 
