( 3819 ) 
NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT IN THE. HIMALAYAS. 
By Suraron-GeneraAL L. C. Stewart, F.Z.S. 
(Continued from p. 294). 
Fagoo, Oct. 3rd. — As I found other visitors were expected 
to-night, and Capt. H.’s accommodation was limited (his hospi- 
tality being in the inverse ratio), I deemed it expedient to start 
my small establishment directly after breakfast for Fagoo, about 
four miles on, promising to give H. a day of my society on my 
return. There is a decent travellers’ or dawk bungalow at this 
place. The road is good, and the scenery lovely and varied 
en route; beautiful hanging woods, oak, rhododendron, yew, 
juniper, chestnut, and a score of others, looking their best in 
the autumnal change of leaf. Occasionally at an abrupt turn of 
the road a stupendous precipice would present itself, a cor- 
responding wall towering above the road, which is in fact cut out 
of the mountain-face. At one of these points I came upon a 
colony of the Spine-tailed Swift, Acanthylis (or Chetura) gigantea, 
a bird of great interest, rare, and difficult to procure, from its 
amazing velocity of flight; requiring some skill in shooting, and 
a good deal of luck in recovering when shot, owing to the difficult 
style of country one has generally to traverse in searching for 
it. Luckily for me, on this occasion several of these Swifts 
were flying across the face of the cliff above me, and as I only 
fired when they were on the turn I thus minimised the chance of 
missing. I blazed away, and by good luck bagged three out of 
five I dropped, and that out of a dozen I fired at. All the time I 
thought it was Cypselus melba I was firing at, for I had never 
before seen the Spine-tail alive. My delight may therefore be 
imagined on procuring three specimens with such comparative 
facility. Nothing ever witnessed by me in the way of bird-flight 
approaches this Swift’s rush; the nearest thing I could think of 
being the swoop of a Falcon (for I never saw a Humming-bird 
alive). I got three more to add to my collection before the trip 
was over. ‘The acquisition of these birds took me an hour and 
more, but I did not consider it time wasted. 
Sauntering along through the lovely woods I got among other 
things a pair of Garrulax variegatus, and I saw G. leucolophus and 
G. albogularis, besides Geocichla citrina, Oreocincla dauma, and 
