312 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



" Of these I have watched scattered bodies passhig over Dar- 

 jeeling for many days together, journeying to the S. and S.W. 

 Tliey consist chiefly of Callocalia unicolor {nidifica), Acanthyllis 

 Sabini ?, Ulrimdo riparia, and doubtless all the other species that 

 visit us during the cold season. Amongst these Acanthyllis 

 nudipes is at once recognised by liis great size and the prodigious 

 swiftness of his movements. There is nothing I have ever 

 witnessed equal to the flight of this bird ; it is something bold 

 and vast, and in keeping with the sublime preciijices and cloud- 

 capped pinnacles, which are its favoui'ite resort. It breeds among 

 the huge wall-like crags of the Himmala, and under the snow 

 level." 



In the same communication Capt. Tickell writes, of Cypseliis 

 melba : — " This is a common bird in the high central parts of 

 India, from Mednipoor westward, in the cold weather. It mingles 

 indiscriminately with flocks of Hirundo europyga (i. e., daurica, 

 v. erythropygia) , H. rustica {gutturalis '}), Cypselus ajjinis, and 

 other common species, but flies so high as often to escape 

 observation. It resorts much to the tops of high rocks or wooded 

 hills, the summits of whicli it flies round with great velocity. I 

 have shot them both in jungly and in open country. In Colgong, 

 in Mantbhum, and in Chota Nagpore, flocks sometimes assemble 

 of an evening near large ponds in the jungles, dashing into the 

 water with loud screams, like our Swifts (C. apus) at home." 



In Europe, remarks Mr. Yarrell of C. melba, " High rocks 

 and the loftiest parts of cathedrals and church spires are the 

 places chosen by this bird, in the fissures of which it forms a nest 

 of straw and moss" (?), "and these are cemented by a glutinous 

 matter, which, when dry, makes the nest very hard.* JM. Vieillot 

 says the nest is small for the size of the bird, and, when fixed 

 against a vertical surface, is in the form of a half-circle. This 

 bird lays four or five elongated white eggs. The Cypselus afri- 

 canus, or le Martinet a gorge blanche of Levaillant's ' Birds of 

 Africa,' is considered to be the same as this White-bellied Swift." 



While adding the above, and too late for insertion in its 

 proper place, we have been fortunate in procuring a nest, 

 evidently just built (August), of C. balasiensis, containing a bi'oken 



=■• This (lescriiJtion applies equally to nests of C. cqms which we have 

 exarained, some of which more especially were solidified into a veiy firia 

 crust or shell. 



