CYPSELUS. 21 



thickness of material; and where two chambers are nearest to 

 each other, the partition wall rarely exceeds | inch. 



Later, Miss Cockburn obtained one egg from a nest on this 

 same rock, which she kindly sent me ; she did not take it herself, 

 but I think that there is no doubt of its authenticity. It is a very 

 long oval egg, pure white and rather glossy, and measures 1-1 

 by 0-73. 



Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, say : 

 "Permanent resident in Satara. Breeds, D. thinks, about the 

 cliffs, and on old buildings in the fort there." 



Colonel McMaster wrote many years ago : "I saw several very 

 fine Swifts which seemed to be this species at the old fort Gawil- 

 garh and at CMkalda, 3700 feet, in April and May, but could not 

 get a specimen. They appeared to be breeding about the perpen- 

 dicular oliff* on which Gawilgarh is perched." 



Cypselus affinis, J. E. Gray. The Common Indian Swift. 



Cypselus affinis, Gray, Jerd. B. Incl i, p. 177 ; Hume, Rough Draft 

 N. Sf E. no. 100. 



The Common Indian Swift breeds throughout the plains of India, 

 and in the Himalayas up to a height of about 6000 feet. I cannot 

 hear of its breeding at all high up on the Nilghiris, but I found it 

 on the Aravalis breeding at the top of Taragurh and on Mount 

 Aboo. 



It has at least two broods in a year, and eggs may be found any 

 time from February to August, both months included. 



It is very capricious as to its choice of a nest-site, but having 

 once secured one to its liking, returns thither with a pertinacity 

 that no ordinary persecution in the way of robbing and destroying 

 nests will overcome. They breed in company ; solitary nests are, 

 as far as my experience goes, unknown ; from a dozen to fifty 

 pairs will be found nesting together ; the nests either clustered 

 together in one dense mass, as when they choose the roof of some 

 little cave, or the interior of some old Moslem dome or Hindoo 

 shrine, or else scattered about in little groups, in close proximity, 

 as when they occupy a verandah, and each pair of rafters has its 

 half-dozen nests. Perhaps, on the whole, it prefers inhabited to 

 deserted buildings, but I have found its nest a hundred times 

 in both. 



The nests vary very much in size, shape, and material. I have 

 taken them from between two very closely-set rafters in a railway- 

 station, long half-tubes a foot in length, some 4 inches in external 

 diameter, composed wholly of feathers cemented together by saliva, 

 and scarcely | inch in thickness. Two now before me are large 

 masses, 10 by 6 and 2 J to 3 thick, of grass, in which many feathers 

 of doves, parrots, peafowl, sarus, duck, some little sheep's wool, 

 and a bit or two of twine are all mingled. The bottom portions 

 are a good deal cemented together by saliva, but the interior is by 



