CYPSELUS. 27 



Swifts I have long been sure that they must breed on other trees, 

 and to-day I took a nest on a leaf of the betel-nut palm with 

 three fresh eggs. There were many other Swifts evidently 

 breeding in the same garden. The leaves of the betel-nut palm 

 bend down almost in the same way as the Palmyra. The nest was, 

 however, on one of the upper leaves which was nearly horizontal." 



Colonel Legge, writing of Ceylon, says : " This species breeds 

 from October until April, probably rearing two broods in the 

 season, as I have found eggs and young of the same colony during 

 both these months." 



The egg, a miniature of that of C. affinis, is a long oval, slightly 

 compressed towards one end. The texture of the shell is some- 

 what fine, but it has commonly little or no gloss. In colour it is 

 a pure white, entirely free from spots or specks. 



In length the eggs vary from O65 to 0-75 inch, and in breadth 

 from 0*42 to O43 inch ; but the average of more than fifty eggs 

 measured was barely 0*71 by 0-46 inch. 



Cypselus infumatus, Sclater. Sclaters Palm-Swift. 



Cypselus infumatus, Sclater, Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 102 

 bis. 



As yet Sclater's Palm-Swift (C. tectorum, Jerd.) has only been 

 found breeding in the Garo and North Cachar Hills, during the 

 months of March, April, and May, at heights of from 2500 to 

 4000 feet above the sea-level, but it undoubtedly breeds all over 

 Burma. The following note was given me by Dr. Jerdon : 

 *' They attach their nests to the palm-leaves used by the people to 

 roof their huts. The roofs consist of two separate layers of leaves, 

 and it is to the upper surface of the lower layer that the nests are 

 attached. These nests resemble closely those of C. batassiensis, and 

 are tiny little shallow saucers, some 2 inches in diameter, composed 

 of some feathery seed, with here and there a stray feather, agglu- 

 tinated with saliva after the fashion of the genus/' 



I have never seen the eggs, but Colonel Godwin-Austen tells us 

 that " this little Swift was numerous in the Xaga villages around 

 Asahi in March and April, and was then breeding in the roofs of 

 the houses. A nest that I obtained was attached to the upper 

 surface of a kind of palm-leaf, in the thatch of a house ; it is a 

 neat, very shallow, construction of fluffy grass-seed, stuck together 

 with saliva, a feather or two intermingled with the grass. The 

 eggs were two in number, pure white, resting against the lower 

 side of the nest, which is just of sufficient depth to retain them, 

 so that the parent bird can hardly be said to sit on her eggs in the 

 nest, but rather hangs on to it in apparently a most uncomfortable 

 position ; and how the young when hatched remain with safety in 

 the nest, it is difficult to understand, unless the. power of hanging 

 on by the claws is thus early developed." 



