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Show 1885.] PROF. W. NATION ON PERUVIAN BIRDS. 277 4. ATTACUS ATLAS, L. 1 cf. The vitreous spot of the fore wing with a very obtuse angle towards the costa ; exterior angle acuminated, interior side convex, exterior side concave ; the vitreous accessory spot small, lineal, along the middle hardly transparent, not reaching the outer cross band. The vitreous spot of the hind wing forms nearly a regular triangle, the posterior margin of which is rather sinuated. There are now 25 species of Butterflies known from Timorlaut, no doubt only a small part of those there existing. 3. Notes on Peruvian Birds. By Prof. W. NATION, C.M.Z.S. [Eeceived February 27, 1885.] 1. PETROCHELIDON RUFICOLLIS (Peale). Some twenty years ago an American engineer, engaged by the Peruvian Government to survey the Andean valleys and coasts of Peru for railway routes, showed me a letter from his friend the late Mr. John Cassin, requesting him to examine carefully the rocks and cliffs for a Swallow's nest. He informed me that he had searched for it for two or three years without success. Many years after, when the subject of Mr. Cassin's letter had almost escaped m y memory, being in the National Library of Lima, looking over some books which had just arrived, I found the two volumes of Birds of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, and saw the description of the Swallows obtained by Peale, near Callao, in, I think, 1835, and named by him Hirundo ruficollis. With this information I recommenced my search for it. One would naturally suppose that if a Crag-Martin had been found in Western Peru, its breeding place would be found in one of the Andean valleys, wbere everything necessary for its economy abounds. Such at least was my impression ; and from this error I lost many years in searching for it in places which it rarely or perhaps never visits. At length, in 1877, tired and fatigued by a long ramble over the hot sandy hills of the neighbourhood of Lima, I came to some old ruins of a brick- or lime-works, so old that the ditches that had one supplied it with water had in many places disappeared ; it must have been abandoned for a quarter of a century at least. Here, while sitting down inside the old kiln, I observed a bit of earth adhering to the wall; on removing it and blowing away carefully the loose particles of dust, I saw that it was composed of pellets, and that these pellets could not have been formed by any insect. I felt convinced that I had discovered the object of so many fatiguing journeys. Every rock, wall, and building near the ruins was carefully examined by m e ; and in the coarse of the day, about twelve miles from the city I fell in with a large colony of Cliff-Swallows. On the following day I returned with a man and a ladder. The house which this bird had selected for its breeding place was a PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1885, No. XIX. 19 |
