226 Mr. C. A. Wright's Fifth Appendix to a 



few days previously, and was so tame as readily to pick up 

 seed and sip water in the presence of persons looking at it, 

 but was easily startled and frightened if approached too sud- 

 denly. Its note was a single sharp tseet, uttered once, or re- 

 peated two or three times at short intervals. On dissection 

 it proved to be a male, probably a yomig bird, and veiy thin, 

 although its crop was nearly full of hemp-seed ; but this kind 

 of food probably did not agree with it. In plumage it re- 

 sembles exactly the upper figure in Bree's ' Birds of Europe," 

 who also gives a very accurate description. Like the plumage 

 attributed to the female, it has no russet on the throat, and 

 presents a cream-coloured streak extending backwards from 

 the eye. Its bright russet cheeks and ear-coverts, together 

 with an irregular black band running over each side of the head, 

 above the eye, from the base of the beak to the nape, and its 

 diminutive size will help to distinguish it at a glance. The 

 beak is straight, or nearly so, very sharp, and pointed, and 

 slightly reversed at the tip. Upper mandible small. Irides 

 black, or extremely dark brown ; legs and feet light yellowish 

 brown. Carefully measured in the flesh, its length was 

 slightly over 5 inches, from carpal to end of wing 2| inches. 



273. Cypselus pallidus, Shelley. Egyptian Swift. 



Undoubted examples of this Swift have been taken in 

 Malta in May of the present year. Capt. Feilden procured 

 one in the market on the 18th; and I obtained another at 

 Salini on the 27th. Both specimens were females and in 

 good condition. In mine the ovary was beginning to enlarge. 

 He observed a bird on the 13th, which must have belonged 

 to this species, in company with common Swifts; and, on the 

 wing, it reminded him of a large Sand-Martin. I am nearly 

 certain that I have shot this light-coloured Swift before ; 

 and one occasion especially recurs to my memory. This 

 was in August, when I killed several out of a large flock on 

 Fort-Manoel Island. Unfortunately I did not preserve any, 

 mistaking them for the young of C. apus. Little doubt now 

 remains on my mind that Cypselus pallidus visits us, both in 

 spring and autumn, and is pi'obably a regular migrant to 



