These gregarious swallows of India which nest in large colonies were similar to the Fairy Martins which Gould had seen in Australia. Gould wrote that they 'both... live in societies, and the individuals breed in close contiguity.' He added that the bottle-shaped nests in the illustration, were drawn from descriptions and not from real nests, but as he had had ample opportunity of observing similar nesting sites in Australia, he believed that they were 'not far wrong'.
This illustration has similarites to the plate of the Fairy Martin Collocalia Ariel, The Birds of Australia, I, pl.51
The swallows are depicted lifesize.
DISTRIBUTION: Southern Asia: northeastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan and northern and central India