MA.CROPTERYX. 181 



Rajputana, the Deccan, Garnatic, &c. that are deficient in trees, 

 and is, even where common, very locally distributed. 



J/abits, fyc. The Crested Swift is commonly seen in small parties 

 .about groves of trees and pieces of water in or near forest, flying 

 elegantly but not very rapidly for a Swift, and frequently perching 

 on dead branches at the tops of trees. It has a habit when perching 

 of erecting its peculiar sincipital crest. It has, as Jerdon says, a 

 loud parrot-like call, often uttered on the wing and also when 

 perching. It makes a minute saucer-shaped nest, only about 

 1| inches in diameter, of flakes of bark and sometimes a few 

 feathers cemented together, and attached to the side of a horizontal 

 dead twig or branch with saliva. The nest is so small that it is 

 with difficulty seen, and the Swift sits on the branch with its body 

 over the nest. The breeding-season is from April to June, and a 

 single egg is laid, white, without gloss, and elongately-oval in shape. 

 An egg in Mr. Hume's collection measured -85 by '55 inch, but 

 he looked on this as small. 



1087. Macropteryx longipennis. The Malayan Crested Swift. 



Hirundo longipennis, Rafinesque, Bull. Soc. Philom. iii, p. 153 (1802). 

 Hirundo klecho, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii, p. 143 (1821). 

 Macropteryx longipennis, Sivains. Zool. III. ser. 2, ii, pi. 47 ; JBlyth, 



Cat. p. 322; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 13; Hartert, Cat. B. M. xvi, 



p. 514. 

 Dendrochelidon klecho, Boie, Isis, 1844, p. 166 ; Horsf. $ M. Cat. 



i, p. 110 ; Bernstein, J.f. Orn. 1859, p. 183, pi. ii, figs. 3, 4, 5 (nest 



& egg) ; Sclater, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 616 ; Kelham, Ibis, 1881, p. 374. 

 Dendrochelidon longipeunis, Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi, pp. 52, 498 ; 



Hume, Cat. no. 104 ter. 



Coloration. Crown, nape, back, sides of neck, upper back, scapu- 

 lars, wing-coverts, and upper tail-coverts metallic greenish bronze, 

 the sincipital crest and wing-coverts tinged with metallic blue as a 

 rule ; lower back and rump bluish ashy ; tertiaries partly whitish 

 grey ; the other wing-feathers and the tail-feathers blackish, with 

 a purple or green gloss ; lores velvety black ; ear-coverts deep 

 .chestnut ; chin, throat, breast, and flanks bluish ashy grey, passing 

 into white on the abdomen and lower tail-coverts. 



The female has the ear-coverts black with a greenish gloss, not 

 chestnut. In the young the plumage is barred ; the feathers of 

 the upper parts pale brown, with dark borders and white outer 

 edges ; crest-feathers with rufous tips ; those of the lower parts 

 whitish with dark edges. 



Iris dark brown ; legs and feet dull purple (Kelham). 



Length about 8-5 inches ; tail 4, the outer feathers 2 inches 

 longer than the middle pair ; wing 6'5 ; tarsus '35. 



Distribution. The Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, 

 ranging into Tenasserim as far north as Mergui and Nwalabo 

 mountain. 



Habits, fyc. similar to those of M. coronata. 



