COVILHA, a town of Portugal on the eastern slope of the Serra da Estrella, and on the Abrantes-Guarda railway. Pop. (1 gzo) 14,049. Covilha, which has been often compared with a collection of swallows' nests clinging to the rugged granitic moun tain side, is shaped like an amphitheatre of closely crowded houses, overlooking the river Zezere and its wild valley from a height of a, I 8of t. Over 4,000 operatives are employed in the manufacture of saragoca, a coarse brown cloth worn by the peasantry throughout Portugal.