According to Gould,'the Western Mosque Swallow' was found especially in Greece, the Holy Land, and Asia Minor, and differed from the 'Daurian Mosque Swallow'of the east (see following plate, Asia, I, 28), in the much lighter colouring of the breast and red rump, and the almost total absence of streaked markings.
It makes nests in caves or under projecting rocks of a retort shape, like a bottle lying on its back, with a narrow entrance through the neck. The naturalist, Rev. H.B. Tristram, watched the swallows breeding in Israel, under the arches of the corridors of Mount Carmel.
The male and female are lifesize, and alike in plumage, but the female is smaller than the male.
H.B. Tristram, The Ibis, 1867, p.362
DISTRIBUTION: Southern Palearctic, western Africa and eastern Africa including western and central Ethiopia; also in southern and eastern Asia and Sri Lanka. Winters from Mediterranean region east across southern Eurasia and south to tropical Africa.
The birds depicted belong to the subspecies Hirundo daurica rufula