A NESTING PLACE OF MICROPUS SUBFURCATUS 

 IN MINDORO 



By Dean C. Worcester 

 Of Cebu, Cebu, P. I. 



On May 13, 1919, having had occasion to explore the Caguray 

 River, in Mindoro, I was resting in the shade of a great over- 

 hanging rock forming one^side of the gap through which this 

 stream finally leaves the mountains, when I noticed, only a few 

 feet above my head, several nests of the common Asiatic barn 

 swallow (Hirundo javanica Sparrman). Shortly afterward a 

 carrier poked one of these nests down with a short stick, and 

 from the resulting debris took two small birds, which on exam- 

 ination I found, to my surprise, to be young swifts. A moment 

 afterward I saw a large, white-rumped swift enter the opening 

 in the rock from which this nest had been removed. This bird 

 flew away in a moment, but continued to return at frequent in- 

 tervals, apparently puzzled by the loss of its young. 



A more careful inspection of the underside of this overhanging 

 rock showed, at a considerable distance above the ground, a 

 series of grayish-colored nests, which blended so well with the 

 rock that I had not previously noticed them. They gave the im- 

 pression of being somewhat bottle-shaped, with the necks of the 

 bottles usually directed inward toward the sloping face of the 

 rock, the openings for entrance and egress being at the ends 

 of the necks. In some instances there were merely round open- 

 ings in the sides of the nests, and in two cases the nests were 

 in holes in the rock, with their round openings directed outward. 



By means of a long bamboo pole I succeeded in dislodging 

 several nests. I found them to be composed almost exclusively 

 of feathers, with which were intermingled a very limited number 

 of bamboo leaves, a few other small leaves, and a very few 

 blades of grass, the feathers having evidently belonged to a 



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