THE INDIAN GIANT SPINE-TAIL. 5 



Subfamily CH^TURIN^E. 



Genus HIRUNDINAPUS, Hodgs. 

 404. HIRUNDINAPUS GIGANTEUS. 



THE GIANT SPINE-TAIL. 



Cypselus giganteus, Van Hass., Temm. PL Col. 364. Chaetura gigantea, 

 Sclater, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 608 (part.) ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 46 ; Hume, S. F. 

 viii. p. 84. Hirundinapus giganteus, Sahad. Ucc. Born. p. 124 (part.). 



Description. Male and female. Lores deep black; forehead, crown, 

 nape, hind neck, sides of the head and of the neck, upper tail-coverts, 

 wings and tail deep brown, almost black ; back, scapulars and rump pale 

 brown; entire lower surface uniform smoky brown; lower tail-coverts 

 white with black shafts ; the whole plumage more or less glossy. 



Length 9 inches, tail 3, wing 8, tarsus '7, bill from gape I'l. The 

 female is very slightly smaller. 



Mr. Davison procured one specimen of this bird at Malewoon, in the 

 extreme south of Tenasserim, where it is probably only a straggler. 



It occurs in the Malay peninsula, Sumatra and Java, and possibly in 

 Borneo. In Celebes it appears to be replaced by a race which is closely 

 allied to H. indicus, and which Dr. Sclater has termed C. gigantea, var. 

 celebensis. In Cochin China it is replaced by H. cochinchinensis , Oustalet, 

 a species which I have not been able to examine. If distinct, it is probably 

 the bird which frequents China (David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 71). 



405. HIRUNDINAPUS INDICUS. 

 THE INDIAN GIANT SPINE -TAIL. 



Acanthylis gigantea (Temm.}, apud Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 172 ; Bl $ Wold. B. Burm. 

 p. 84 ; Wardhiw Rant *ay, Ibis, 1877, p. 459. Chaetura indica, Hume, S. F. 

 i. p. 471, ii. p. 155, iv. p. 286 ; Inglis, S. F. v. p. 17 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi. 

 p. 46 ; BourdiUon, S. F. vii. p. 44 ; Hume, S.F. viii. p. 84. Chaetura gigantea, 

 apud Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 314. 



Description. Male and female. Differs from the preceding in having the 

 chin and throat whity brown and not concolorous with the remainder of 

 the lower plumage, in having a large white spot between the lores and the 

 nostrils, and in having the brown of the back and rump paler. 



