502 Messrs, E. L. & E. L. C. Layard on the 



9. 7EGOTHELESSAVESi,Layard&TristranfijIbis,1881,p.l32. 

 This Ijcautiful addition to tlie New-Caledonian fauna, and 

 to knowledge in general, rests on an example obtained acci- 

 dentally at Tongue on the 11th of April, 1880, having flown 

 into a room at night, attracted by the light burning therein. 

 It is the rarest of our birds, and the specimen described and 

 figured {loc. cit.) remains up to this time unique. The natives 

 and colonists equally declare it is unknown to them, so of 

 course we can say nothing of its habits. As already stated, we 

 are indebted to M. Saves of Noumea for this interesting speci- 

 men, which we have had much pleasure in naming after him. 



10. CoLLocALiA uROPYGiALis, G. R. Gray. 

 The Swiftlet which we term the " White-bellied '' Swift, to 

 distinguish it from its close ally, the " Grey-bellied " Swift, is 

 not uncommon and widely distributed over the whole of New 

 Caledonia. ' On our first arrival here we thought it was con- 

 fined to the forest-region, the next species replacing it in the 

 open country and about the town of Noumea. It was then 

 also much the rarer of the two ; but for the last two years 

 C. leucopygia has entirely disappeared, and its place has been 

 filled, both in town and country, by the present species, which 

 has become much more plentiful. Sometimes, however, we 

 miss it from round Noumea for several months at a time, but 

 whither it retires we have not the remotest idea. 



It breeds in October and November, chiefly in the latter 

 month, in holes or small caves in the forest, or in hollow 

 trees. At Moindou we found many nests in the hollow 

 trunks of the huge Erythrina trees growing along the banks 

 of the river. The nest is composed of fresh moss agglu- 

 tinated together by the saliva of the bird, very small, flat on 

 the side by which it is attached to the surface of the rock 

 if in a cave, or fitted to the inequalities of the wood if in a 

 hollow tree. The eggs, never more than two, and very fre- 

 quently only one, in number, are pure white, squarely trun- 

 cated at each end : axis 9'", diam. 6'". 



They feed on minute insects captured on the wing ; and we 

 have seen them hawking over and skimming a pool of water 



