diff --git a/elasticsearch/transport.py b/elasticsearch/transport.py
index 7e032ab3..7134f40d 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/transport.py
+++ b/elasticsearch/transport.py
@@ -8,22 +8,21 @@ from .exceptions import ConnectionError
 # get ip/port from "inet[wind/127.0.0.1:9200]"
 ADDRESS_RE = re.compile(r'/(?P<host>[^:]*):(?P<port>[0-9]+)\]')
 
-def construct_hosts_list(nodes, transport):
-    """
-    Simple callback that trasnforms the output of `/_cluster/nodes` to a format
-    accepted by :class:`~elasticsearch.Transport`.
 
-    :arg nodes: deserialized output of the API call
-    :arg transport: the transport schema used (usually 'http'). Used to locate
-        appropriate address in the node info.
+def get_host_info(node_info, host):
     """
-    hosts = []
-    address = '%s_address' % transport
-    for n in nodes.values():
-        match = ADDRESS_RE.search(n.get(address, ''))
-        if match:
-            hosts.append(match.groupdict())
-    return hosts
+    Simple callback that takes the node info from `/_cluster/nodes` and a
+    parsed connection information and return the connection information. If
+    `None` is returned this node will be skipped.
+
+    Useful for filtering nodes (by proximity for example) or if additional
+    information needs to be provided for the :class:`~elasticsearch.Connection`
+    class.
+
+    :arg node_info: node information from `/_cluster/nodes`
+    :arg host: connection information (host, port) extracted from the node info
+    """
+    return host
 
 class Transport(object):
     """
@@ -33,7 +32,7 @@ class Transport(object):
     Main interface is the `perform_request` method.
     """
     def __init__(self, hosts, connection_class=RequestsHttpConnection,
-        connection_pool_class=ConnectionPool, nodes_to_host_callback=construct_hosts_list,
+        connection_pool_class=ConnectionPool, host_info_callback=get_host_info,
         sniff_on_start=False, sniff_after_requests=None,
         sniff_on_connection_fail=False, serializer=JSONSerializer(),
         max_retries=3, **kwargs):
@@ -42,9 +41,9 @@ class Transport(object):
             create a `connection_class` instance
         :arg connection_class: subclass of :class:`~elasticsearch.Connection` to use
         :arg connection_pool_class: subclass of :class:`~elasticsearch.ConnectionPool` to use
-        :arg nodes_to_host_callback: callback responsible for taking the output
-            of `/_cluser/nodes` and producing a list of arguments (same as `hosts`
-            parameter)
+        :arg host_info_callback: callback responsible for taking the node information from
+            `/_cluser/nodes`, along with already extracted information, and
+            producing a list of arguments (same as `hosts` parameter)
         :arg sniff_on_start: flag indicating whether to obtain a list of nodes
             from the cluser at startup time
         :arg sniff_after_requests: number of requests after which a sniffing should be initialized
@@ -81,8 +80,8 @@ class Transport(object):
         self.sniff_after_requests = sniff_after_requests
         self.sniff_on_connection_fail = sniff_on_connection_fail
 
-        # callback to construct hosts dicts from /_cluster/nodes data
-        self.nodes_to_host_callback = nodes_to_host_callback
+        # callback to construct host dict from data in /_cluster/nodes
+        self.host_info_callback = host_info_callback
 
         if sniff_on_start:
             self.sniff_hosts()
@@ -139,7 +138,21 @@ class Transport(object):
         # set the counter to 0 first so that other threads won't sniff as well
         self.req_counter = 0
         _, node_info = self.perform_request('GET', '/_cluster/nodes', sniffing=True)
-        hosts = self.nodes_to_host_callback(node_info['nodes'], self.connection_class.transport_schema)
+
+        hosts = []
+        address = self.connection_class.transport_schema + '_address'
+        for n in node_info['nodes'].values():
+            match = ADDRESS_RE.search(n.get(address, ''))
+            if not match:
+                continue
+
+            host = match.groupdict()
+            if 'port' in host:
+                host['port'] = int(host['port'])
+            host = self.host_info_callback(n, host)
+            if host is not None:
+                hosts.append(host)
+
         self.set_connections(hosts)
 
         # when sniffing due to failure, shorten the period between sniffs progressively