Birds of ike PhiUppine Islands. 4G1 



The key should stand : — 



a. Without white on the abdomen. 



a'. Without whitish or greyish band across the rump. 



a". Tail square, middle and outer pairs of feathers 



subequal. Larger, wing 5 inches to 5-3. Tarsi 



feathered C. loioi. 



b". Tail distinctly forked. 



a^. Tarsi entirely devoid of feathers. 



a*. Larger. Wing 6"15 inches to 5-5. Upper 



parts sooty C. whiteheadi. 



b*. Smaller. Wing" about 4*5 inches. Upper 



parts brownish C. imicolor. 



P. Tarsi feathered. Upper parts dark and glossy C.fudphafia. 



7&. CoLLocALiA FuciPHAGA (Thiinb.) ; Hartert, Cat. B. 

 Brit. Mus. xvi. p. 498 (1892). 



I have one male and three females of the Edible-nest 

 Swiftlet from the highlands of Lepanto^ obtained in the month 

 of January. The tarsi in these examples are very distinctly 

 feathered and the upper parts are very dark and glossed with 

 green ; in many respects these birds appear to me to differ 

 considerably from examples obtained in the Nilghiris, for- 

 merly distinguished as C. unicolor, but now united with 

 C. fucip)haga. Mr. Hartert mentions the feathering of the 

 tarsi as a distinctive character of the long- winged Himalayan 

 subspecies C brevirostris , but it is equally developed in 

 specimens from Borneo, New Guinea, &c., which he in- 

 clndes in his typical C. fuciphaga ; and I may remark 

 that examples from these last localities differ from the 

 Nilghiri birds, and resemble Philippine examples in having 

 the upper parts dark and glossy. I have now examined 

 the whole of the material in the Museum with great care, 

 and, in my opinion, the Nilghiri bird may well be distin- 

 guished under the name of C. miicolor, Jerdon, the charac- 

 teristics being the much browner upper parts and the naked 

 tarsus, which is, without exception, devoid of feathers. As 

 regards the subspecies C. brevirostris, McClelland, from the 

 Assam hills, &c., I cannot agree with Mr. Hartert in con- 

 sidering this form worthy of subspecific rank, for its larger 

 size alone distinguishes it from the typical C. fuciphaga of 



SER. VIT. VOL. I. 2 K 



