Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, &^c. 235 



I have ascertained that the range of this Swift is a very exten- 

 sive one. In the first place, I find it impossible to separate the 

 Palestine bird from the Indian Cypselus affinis, Gray (see Jer- 

 don's ' Birds of India/ vol. i. p. 177). Specimens in Mr. Gould's 

 possession, obtained by Captain Burgess in the Deccan, seem 

 absolutely inseparable from those in Mr. Tristram's collection. 

 This Swift, therefore, as recorded by Jerdon, is found all over 

 the peninsula of India, from the Himalayas to the extreme 

 south, including Ceylon. There are specimens Trom Kurrachee 

 in the British Museum. It is likewise found throughout the 

 continent of Africa, excepting the northern parts. Antinori, 

 its first discoverer in Palestine, records its occurrence in Sennar. 

 Hemprich and Ehrenberg found it in Abyssinia ; and upon their 

 specimens Streubel established his species Cypselus ahyssinicus 

 (Isis, 1848, p. 354). Under the latter name, it will be found 

 figuring in Hartlaub's well known volume on the ' Birds of 

 Africa.' Mr. Otto Finsch, the Curator of the Ornithological 

 Collection at Bremen, tells me that he cannot distinguish a West- 

 African specimen, obtained in the Island of St. Thomas, from 

 the Indian bird. And the same fact has been noticed by Sir 

 "William Jardine (Contrib. to Orn. 1849 and 1851). Lastly, 

 there is a skin in the British Museum marked as from the 

 Cape, and, as I am informed by Mr. Finsch, a specimen in the 

 Bremen Collection from the same locality. 



A nearly allied but perfectly distinct species, is Cypselus sub- 

 furcatus, Blyth, which ranges from China, through Siam, to 

 Malacca and Sumatra. This appears to be the bird described 

 and figured by Cassin (Proc. Acad. Philadelph. v. p. 58, 

 pi. 13) as C. leucopygialis. These two species together form a 

 distinct section of the genus Cypselus, distinguished from their 

 brethren by their short, nearly square tail. 



I am. Sir, 



Yours, &c., 



P. L. SCLATER. 

 11 Hanover Square, 

 March 1st, 1865. 



