THE BIRDS OF NORTH C A CHAR. 551 



Its flight is almost as noticeable for its singular steadiness and little 

 wing movement as it is for its great swiftness. 



(456) Ch^tuka leucopygialis. — The Small Black Spine-tail. 

 Ilume^ No. 95, Bis ; Cat., B. Museum^ Vol. XVI^p, 490, 

 I have twice seen a small Spine-tail hawking about over the Mahor 

 River, but missed the only possible shot I ever had. There was no 

 white visible as the birds flew overhead, so that it could not have been 

 C. sylvatica and not being that birdj it is practically certain it must 

 have been C. leucopygialis. 



(457) COLLOCALIA FUCIPHAGA. — (Subspecics C. f. hrevirostris?). 



The Northern Swiftlet. 

 Hume^ No. 103, A ; Cat., B. Musemn, Vol. XVI, pp. 549-501. 

 Many years ago a Collocolia^ together with its nest and eggs, was 

 brought to me by some Nagas. This bird I then identified as 

 C. linchi ; then afterwards I found that this must he wrong and thought 

 that it was possible that they were Spodiopyga^ but as I had no skins 

 to compare them with and knew but little of the genus, I was wrono- 

 again, and now I think I can say with fair certainty that the bird was 

 Hume's Manipar bird. 



It is undoubtedly very rare, but I may have mistaken it for 

 C. infumatus on some occasions. 



(458) Macropteryx goronata. — The Crested Tree Swift. 

 Hume, No. 104 ; Cat.^ B. Museum, Vol. XVI, p. 512. 

 My experience of the nidification of this bird has been rather re- 

 markable. It is well known that this genus builds a tiny nest of 

 inspissated saliva which is generally placed on the upper surface of a 

 stout bough ; now, strange to say, the North Cachar bird not only 

 builds an unusually large nest, but more often than not places it 

 agaiiist the side of the bough. 



The first nest I ever took was a most peculiar one, and, judo^ing 

 from its constructiou, must have been the second built by the bird that 

 season. I found it on the 12th February, 1887, built against the 

 trunk of a large tree just above a large bulging knot, some forty to 

 fifty feet from the ground. It was made of seed down, a few tiny 

 scraps of bark, and also three or four comparatively large bunches of 

 moss. These were massed together, with the exception of the bark 

 into a solid mass with saliva, forming a very substantial little nest^ the 



