611 



CYPSELUS MELBA. THE WHITE-BELLIED 

 SWIFT. 



Fig. 270. 



Hirundo Melba. Linn. Syst. Nat. I. 345. 



Hirundo major hispanica. Briss. Av. II. 504. 



Hirundo Melba. Lath. Ind- Orn. 11. 582. 



Martinet a ventre blanc. Cypselus alpinus. Teram. Man. d'Orn. I. 



Alpine Swift. Cypselus alpinus. Selb. lUustr. I. 127. 



Cypselus alpinus. Alpine Swift. Jen. Brit. Vert. An. 159. 



433. 



All the upper parts^ together icith the sides and loicer part of 

 the nech, the sides of the body, legs, and lower wing and tail- 

 coverts, greyish-brown ; the rest white ; length to end of tail 

 about nine inches. 



Male. — In form and proportions the White-bellied Swift 

 resembles the common species, having the body moderately stout, 

 theneckshort, thehead rather largeand depressed ; thebill some- 

 what more slender and elongated, its upper outline considerably 

 curved ; the nostrils linear-oblong, marginate, a twelfth and 

 a half in length. The tarsus is very short, rather stout, and 

 feathered ; the first toe much smaller than the rest ; the se- 

 cond and fourth about equal, the third a little longer ; all bare, 

 with a soft skin, on which are merely indications of scutella, 



