44 FIRST LIST OF THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTH KONKAN. 



hundreds, every evening flying due west, and every morning 

 flying due east. This confirms Jerdon's statement " that such of 

 these Swifts as have been questing at great distances from their 

 roosting haunts, fly first towards the coast, and then make their 

 way along the sea side, picking up stragglers from other regions 

 on their way to the cliffs of Gairsoppa, or other similar 

 precipices. 



100.— Cypsellus affinis, J. E. Gr. 



Suvamdurg. 

 Batnagiri. 



Common throughout the seaboard. Nests found in February 

 and April in clusters on the island fort of Suvamdurg and the 

 rocky cliffs on the coast. Once in May I found and caught a 

 pair of these Swifts, apparently roosting only, in a mud retort- 

 shaped nest under the eaves of a bungalow, which was evidently 

 the handiwork of Hirundo erythropygia. 



102.— Cypsellus batassiensis, J. E. Gr, 



Bankot. 

 Batnagiri. 



Seen also in large numbers at Malvan and Vengorla. I only 

 know at present of two Palmyra palms ( Borassus flabelliformis ) 

 in the whole district, one at Bankot and one at Malvan. At 

 Bankot, in April, I saw a pair of these Swifts flying out of the 

 solitary Palmyra but found no nests. At Malvan, in January 

 and February, I saw numbers flying in and out of the leaves of 

 the one tree there. They must have had nests, but the tree was 

 very high, and I could get no one to climb it. There are no 

 Palmyras at Ratnagiri, and as the species is common there, about 

 the cocoanut and betelnut gardens, it is probable that, as Mr. 

 Davidson noted in Mysore, ( vide S. F., VII., 172), they nest 

 here in betelnut, if not in cocoanut palms also. There are 

 certainly fifty times too many birds at Malvan to find accommo- 

 dation in the one Palmyra palm, though it is evidently a favou- 

 rite haunt. 



103.— Collocalia unicolor, Jerd. 



Vengorla Bocks 



or 

 Burnt Islands. 



This species, as Jerdon says, is found at one of the group 

 of rocks which lie between Vengorla and Malvan, some five 

 or six miles from the mainland, and breeds there regularly 

 every year. The right to collect the nests is annually sold by 

 auction, and realises on an average about Rs. 30. Two trips 

 are made by the farmer — the first towards the end of February, 



