32 LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR; 



district-— J. R. C] I did not meet with this in Manipur, nor 

 had I, as far as I can now remember, any record of its occurrence 

 anywhere in Assam, Sylhet or Cachar, — A. 0. H. 



I02bis. — Cypsellus infumatus, Sdat. 



I saw a few of these Eastern Palm Swifts about the villages 

 of the Western hills ; also a few about the capital itself. 

 At Moirang, on the southern shores of the Logtak lake, they 

 were very abundant towards the end of March, coming towards 

 evening to roost about the palm thatches of the houses but 

 disappearing during the daytime. Even in the evening, until 

 it became dusk, they kept so high that it was impossible to 

 shoot them, and then when with their rapid flight and dusky 

 plumage they were almost undistinguishable in the growing 

 gloom they did descend, they only made two or three turns and 

 disappeared into the houses, and so, though I went after them 

 two nights and saw hundreds, I only actually bagged four here. 

 In April they were breeding in the roofs of most of the villages 

 in the Eastern hills, and it was easy enough to shoot them, a& 

 some were about all day ; but I could get no nests, all of 

 which seemed to be in hollows in the middle of the thatch, 

 which the people objected to my meddling with. Though they 

 did not say 30 I gathered that they thought it would be un- 

 lucky to meddle with the nests. 



The flight and general appearance of this species and the 

 Collocalia are so much alike that, though the latter is a larger 

 bird, has a longer wing with broader primaries and a broader,, 

 much less forked tail, I was continually shooting one for the 

 other. Godwin- Austen found this species about Asalu and many 

 villages in the Naga hills, but I have not seen it yet from 

 any other places in Assam, Cachar or Sylhet. 



It is common enough in Pegu and Tenasserim in suitable 

 localities, but I have not heard of it from Arakan as yet. 



103a. — Collocalia brevirostris, McClell. 



This is the true Himalayan brevirostris. At pp. 289 and 

 290 (Vol. IX) I pointed out the distinctness of this species 

 from unicolor of Jerdon. 



I may now add that, independent of the feathering of the 

 tarsus, brevirostris averages somewhat larger, is a shade paler 

 on the rump, a shade darker on the rest of the upper sur- 

 face, thus considerably enhancing the contrast, and it has, 

 when freshly killed, a very distinct, though delicate, superciliary 

 stripe over the posterior portion of the lores and the greater 

 part of the eye, forming an excessively narrow, somewhat 

 brownish, white edging to the web of one row of feathers. 



