204 Wonders of the Bird World 



(M. coronatus) makes the same kind of nest, and Mr. 

 Hume describes several instances of its capture. Accord- 

 ing to the latter gentleman the nest is made entirely of thin 

 flakes of bark, cemented together by the birds' own saliva, 

 and is about an inch-and-three-quarters across, and half-an- 

 inch in depth. The thickness of the nest is about the 

 eighth of an inch, and the nest itself is placed against the 

 side of a stem or a branch, of less than an inch in diameter, 

 and on the same level as the latter, so that when the bird 

 is sitting there is never any sign of the tiny nest, and the 

 bird, which is about ten inches in length, simply looks as if 

 it were sitting on the bough. When the nest is attached 

 to the side of a slender branch it is not procured without 

 some difficulty and danger, and Mr. Hume says that a lad 

 whom he sent up to get one of them was nearly killed by 

 the breaking of the branch just before he got to the nest. 

 Captain Horace Terry found a nest of this Swift in the 

 Pulney Hills in Central India. " One day," he writes, " I 

 went down the slopes of the hills in the Pittar Valley to see 

 what I could get in the way of birds and eggs, and I noticed 

 several of these Swifts about, and on looking up at a 

 large tree, with no branches near the ground, and with a 

 sort of gum oozing out in places, I saw a bird near the top 

 at the extremity of one of the branches. I looked at it 

 through my glasses and saw that it was a Crested Swift. 

 With some little trouble I frightened it off the tree ; it took 

 a short flight and then returned to its original position ; and 

 then I saw what I took to be its nest. Under promise of 

 a large reward I induced a native to go up to it. It was as 

 nasty a looking tree to climb as one could well imagine, 

 and the nest was right at the end of a dead branch near 

 the top. However, the man having once started took 

 a sensible view of it, went right up, but of course he could 

 not get quite close to the nest. However, by tying a 

 bamboo under the branch, cutting it through, and then 



