168 CTPSELID^. 



Bill blackish ; iris dark brown ; feet flesh-colour {Delme Rad- 

 cliffe). 



Length about 6 inches ; tail 2*5 ; wing 6 ; tarsus '4 ; the outer 

 exceed the middle rectrices by about '75 inch. 



Distribution. Common in the North-western Himalayas at mode- 

 rate elevations " between the outer ranges and the higher and 

 more interior hills " {Jerdon) ; probably resident. Jerdon states 

 that he obtained a specimen in the western part of the Deccan 

 and several in Malabar, where it frequents rocky hills, but no one 

 appears to have observed specimens in the Peninsula since Jerdon 

 wi'ote. 



1073. Cypselus afiBnis. The Common Indian Sivift. 



Cypselus afRnis, Grai/ i^- Ilardw. III. hid. Zool. i,pl. 35, fig. 2 (1832) ; 

 Jerdon, Mad. Jour. L. S. xi, p. 235 ; Tickell, J. A. 8. li. xvii, 

 p. 303 ; Blyth, Cat. p. 86 ; Horsf. ^ M. Cat. i, p. 106 ; Adams, 

 P. Z. S. 1859, p. 175 ; Jerdon, B. I. i, p. 177 ; Blyth, Ibis, 1866, 

 p. 339 ; mime, S. F. i, p. 166 ; Aitken, 8. F. iii, p. 214 ; Ball, S. F. 

 vii, p. 202 ; Hume, Cat. no. 100 ; Scully, S. F. viii, p. 234 ; Legge, 

 Birds Ceyl. p. 319 ; Vidal, 8. F. ix, p. 44 ; Butler, ibid. p. 379 ; 

 Davison, 8. F. x, p. 347 ; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 3 (note) ; id. in 

 Hume's N. S( E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 21 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 86 ; 

 Littledale, Jour. Bom. N. H. 8oc. i, p. 31 ; Barnes, ibid. p. 43; 

 iv, p. 4; Newnham, op. cit. ii. p. 55 ; 8t. John, Ibis, 1889, p. 156. 



Cypselus nepalensis, Hodgs. J. A. 8. B. \, p. 780 (1836). 



Cypselus montanus, Jerdon, Mad. Jour. L. 8. xiii, pt. 2, p. 144 

 (1844). 



Cypselus abessynicus, 8treubel, Isis, 1848, p. 354; Blanf. J. A. 

 8. B. xxxviii, pt. 2, p. 169 ; Hmne, Ibis, 1870, p. 405. 



Micropus affinis, Hartert, Cat. B. M. xvi, p. 453. 



Ahabil, Babila,Ii.; Pdkoli, Kahr ; Hawa bil-bil, Sahavunimr ; Batasi, 

 Pahari, Sikhim ; Wahcelaniya, Lceniya, Cing. 



Fig. 49.— Head of C. affinis, \. 



Coloration. Very dark brown, almost black, with a distinct gloss 

 above and below ; crown and nape paler, forehead and lower tail- 

 coverts paler still; a black spot before the eye and slight pale 

 supercilia ; quills glossed with green ; a broad white band across 

 the rump, and the chin and throat white, the feathers more or less 

 dark-shafted. 



Bill black ; iris deep brown ; feet vinous brown (Le(/ge). 



Length about 5-5 ; tail 1-75; wing 5-25; tarsus -4. The tail 

 is nearly square, the outer scarcely longer than the middle 

 rectrices. 



