156 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



Port Blair, specially at two ponds, one at Mount Harriet, the 

 other at Port Mouat, where every clear evening they were to be 

 seen hawking, dashing rapidly to and fro, taking half mile turns 

 backwards and forwards as only these Spine-tails can. 



We obtained them from December to the end of April. We 

 have subsequently received specimens shot in July, August, 

 and September. 



Mr. Swinhoe, P. G. S., 1871, p. 345, remarks :— " It is proba- 

 bly this species that makes the edible nests in the caves of the 

 islands off the south of Hainan, and not Chcstura caudacuta, 

 Lath., as I had at first supposed." 



Under correction I venture to doubt whether any Chcetura 

 makes an edible nest. I suspect it will be found that they 

 make nests like Cypselus melba, and other true swifts. The 

 matter deserves careful observation by any one who is lucky 

 enough to discover a breeding place of any of these Chceturas. 



99 bis.— Cypselus acuticauda, Blyth. (1.) 



A single specimen of this species, of which I have a consider- 

 able series from the North- West Himalayas, was shot at Port 

 Blair on the 30th July last, and sent me by Captain Wimberley 

 with other birds which he kindly collected for me between May 

 and October. 



Mr. Blyth originally described this species, Ibis, 1865, 

 p. 45, recording the following remarks in regard to it : — u Speci- 

 men marked from Nepal. Length 7| inches ; extent of wings 

 20 inches; closed wing 6i inches; size and proportions of C. apus ; 

 the tail forked to the depth of an inch, and much more sharply 

 acuminate than in C. apus. Entire upper parts, with the 

 lower tail coverts, deep black, having a slight metallic gloss; 

 each feather of the lower parts (excepting the lower tail 

 coverts) margined with dull white ; throat white, with a black 

 medical streak to each feather ; claws more or less whitish. 

 From C. leuconyx, nobis, of the North- West Himalaya chiefly, 

 this species differs in the absence of the white band crossing the 

 rump. The true C. apus has been received from Afghanistan." 



Having examined a great number of these swifts the dis- 

 tinctness of which from apus seems to be hardly as yet recog- 

 nized in Europe. I may remark that the points of discrimination 

 indicated by Mr. Blyth are not altogether, in my opinion, those 

 which should be chiefly relied on. The great characteristic 

 difference between acuticauda and apus is this : Apus has the 

 whole visible portion of the toes black, and has the whole of the 

 foot and base of the toes, and front and exterior of tarsus, thickly 



