THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 215 



tipped blackish. The irides are as a rule deep brown ; but in 

 one specimen that we examined they were deep slatey blue. 



After examining- carefully twenty specimens, I can discover no 

 difference whatsoever, either in size or color between the two 

 sexes. 



The points of the forehead, projecting- out to the nostrils, the 

 lores, a narrow line at the base of the lower mandible, and the 

 extreme point of the chin, black. The rest of the forehead, 

 crown, occiput and nape, sides of the neck, the rest of the chin, 

 cheeks, ear-coverts, throat and upper margin of breast, a moder- 

 ately dark slatey grey. The back, scapulars, and rump similar, 

 but suffused with a vinaceous brown tinge. The entire wings 

 and tail dull black, the quills paler on their inner web ; all the 

 feathers suffused with a slatey bloom, strongest on the coverts 

 and secondaries ; all the tail feathers very narrowly tipped with, 

 pure white ; an excessively narrow bluish, white edging- to the 

 tips of some of the secondaries, and a still more narrow brownish 

 white edging- to the tips of the other quills. The upper tail 

 coverts, the major portion of the breast, the axillaries, wing lin- 

 ing-, abdomen, flanks, vent, and lower tail coverts pure white. 

 In the fresh bird there are a few slatey grey feathers at the 

 sides of the white portion of the breast, and elsewhere this is 

 often invaded by a few grey feathers. In other words the grey 

 and the white are not divided by a straight well-defined line. 

 The edge of the wing from the carpal joint is black; the lower 

 surface of the quills is albescent grey, becoming .almost grey at 

 the bases. 



This description is taken from particularly fine, freshly moulted, 

 adults; in birds with more or less worn plumage, the pale tippings 

 to the tail and quills entirely disappear, and the slatey bloom 

 almost entirely disappears from the primaries and tail feathers. In 

 other birds, again, the whole chin and throat is duskier, and here 

 and there a specimen may be met with in which the grey of the 

 throat does not appear to descend at all on to the breast, and is 

 pretty distinctly defined from the white. 



Davison remarks : — u This wood swallow is not uncommon 

 about the more open parts of Port Blair. It may be seen perched 

 on a stump in some opeu field from which it sallies after insects, 

 sometimes making- only a short flight, at others a very extended 

 one, before returning either to the same or another perch. Its 

 flight is performed by alternations of numerous quick strokes and 

 sailings with extended motionless wings; it is very graceful, but 

 slow and steady, which makes it an exceedingly easy bird to 

 shoot while on the wing. It frequently descends to the ground 



