126 INSESSORES. CYPSELUS. 



Plate 42. Fig. 3. Natural size. 

 General Bill black. The upper parts, cheeks, and pectoral band, 

 tion. dark hair-brown. Wings clove-brown, inclining to 



blackish-brown. Throat, belly, and upper tail-coverts, 

 white. Tail brown, forked. Tarsi and toes naked, 

 with the exception of a few small feathers placed at the 

 insertion of the hind toe. The female is similar in 

 plumage to the male bird. 

 The young have the upper parts of their plumage bor- 

 dered with pale or wood-brown ; and the tail-feathers 

 margined with yellowish-white. 



Genus CYPSELUS, Illig. SWIFT. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill very short, depressed, and wide at the base, triangu- 

 lar ; the gape extending beyond the posterior angle of the 

 eye ; upper mandible deflected at the point. Nostrils cleft 

 longitudinally on each side of the ridge, open, with a promi- 

 nent margin, beset with small feathers. Feet having the 

 tarsi very short and thick ; toes four, all directed forwards, 

 entirely divided, of two phalanges each, strong, and armed 

 with thick and hooked claws. Tail composed of ten fea- 

 thers. Wings very long, the first quill being rather shorter 

 than the second. 



Dr Latham, in his Index Ornithologicus (under the 

 head Hirundo Apus), first suggested the propriety of sepa- 

 rating the Swifts from the Swallows. In this idea he is sup- 

 ported b}"^ Illiger, Temminck, and other eminent natural- 

 ists, who have accordingly adopted the generic term Cypselus 

 for these birds. In many respects they resemble the pre- 

 ceding genus, feeding and living much in the same manner. 

 They construct their nests in the holes of buildings, or in the 

 clefts of rocks, forming them of various soft materials, col- 



