XXI 



SWIFTS, GOAT-SUCKERS, MUNIAS, ETC. 



" Will a swallow or a swift, or some bird 

 Fly to her and say, I love her still ? " 



Fly Leaves. 



Two birds are always to be met with in gardens 

 and about houses in Calcutta. These are the 

 common Indian swift, Cypselus affinis, and the 

 curious palm-swift, Tachornis batassiensis. Almost 

 every resident of the town must be well aware of 

 the great abundance in which the former species 

 occurs, owing to the habit that it has of establishing 

 itself in great colonies in verandahs, where there 

 are numerous convenient nesting-places above the 

 beams in which masses of feathers and rubbish may 

 be stowed away, and from which they are constantly 

 showering down to litter the floor below. Almost 

 every one, too, must have observed the great flocks 

 of swifts that go drifting about towards sundown in 

 autumn, wheeling and hurrying to and fro and filling 

 the air with piercingly shrill cries (Plate XIV.). The 

 palm-swifts, although much more interesting birds, 



551 



