Vol yi-1 Mattinglev, Plundered for their Plumes. 73 



I was unhurt by the fall, thanks to the water, but I received a 

 few scratches from the tree, principally about the wrists. My 

 clothes were damped, but not my ardour, and I managed to send 

 up the rope ladder, and re-ascended the tree, where I secured 

 another snap-shot of the poor starvelings from a precarious 

 coien of vantage. 



Nesting Place of Australian Swifts. 



By D. Le Sou'ef, C.M.Z.S., &c., Melbourne. 



When visiting Japan lately (25/7/07) in company with our 

 member, Mr. R. A. D. Hood, I was enabled to visit the Kegon 

 Waterfall, near Nikko. It is a beautiful cascade of about 270 

 feet in height and a considerable amount of water also comes 

 out from the apparently conglomerate rock lying under the 

 harder slate-like formation. We were told that in winter it 

 almost ceased running. It drains the Chuzenji Lake, which 

 is about half a mile away, and 4,375 feet above sea- level. 



We were pleased to see many Spine-tailed {ChcEtura 

 caudacuta) and White-rumped Swifts {Micropus pacificus) 

 circling round in the precipitous gorge beneath us, both close to 

 the falling water and further down. Later, towards evening, 

 they hunted for their winged prey well above the gorge. We 

 noticed single birds every now and again darting down towards 

 the overhanging wall of rock to a place under a jagged ledge 

 (marked with a white cross in the photo.), and, bringing our 

 strong field-glasses to bear on the spot, were delighted in being 

 able to clearly distinguish three nests of the Spine-tailed Swifts. 

 The White-rumped Swifts seemed to dart into holes or crevices, 

 where they evidently had their nests, but we could not 

 distinguish them. Of the three nests of the larger bird, two 

 contained young, which we saw the parents feeding, and when 

 so doing they clung on to the side of the nest for a brief moment ; 

 while the third had a bird sitting. The nests were large, and 

 made of mud, evidently of two or three colours, and were built 

 on a sloping wall of rock well under cover, thus — 

 As far as we could judge from the distance we 

 were (about 150 yards) a nest is about a foot 

 in depth externally by about 4 inches across /y^c^ 

 on the top ; the cup or ^^^ cavity was evidently 

 shallow, as the sitting bird was well exposed. 

 We asked the natives living near if they had 

 ever seen the birds roosting at night ; they 

 said " No," and had never seen them resting except when cling- 

 ing to the sides of the cliff where their nests were built. 



We were informed that when the young had all left their 

 nests, and just before the annual migration commences to 

 Australia, about the latter part of September and early in October, 



