182 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



mon for a few Bats and these Swifts to be seen hawking together. 

 Thenote of this Swift, says Mr. Blyth, may be expressed by 

 the sound titiya or titeeya. 



Bonaparte has a Cyps. Sinensis, which he places in his Con- 

 spectus next to this species. This is the only other recorded Asiatic 

 Swift. Other species are found in Africa, Australia, and America, 

 one of which was mistaken for a Martin ( Chelidon) by Boie. 



Gen. CoLLOCALiA, Gray. 



Char. — Hind-toe pointing backwards ; 2nd quill longest ; tail 

 moderate, even or slightly forked ; bill very small, much hooked ; 

 feet very small. 



The birds of this genus comprise the edible-nest building Swal- 

 lows, remarkable for the curious error, so long persevered in, by 

 which naturalists accounted for the composition of their nests, by 

 stating them to be formed of sea-weeds prepared in the stomach of 

 the bird. As far back as 1781, Hooyman published, in the Batavian 

 Society's Transactions, a tolerable account of the bird, its food, and 

 the way in which the nests were elaborated by a kind of secretion ; 

 yet Cuvier himself repeats the vulgar error, asserting that the nest 

 is formed of a whitish and gelatinous substance, arranged in layers, 

 by macerating a peculiar kind of fucus. The salivary glands of 

 the birds of this genus are very large ; and it is from these 

 glands, and not the proventricular glands, (as was first made 

 known by Mr. Blyth,) that the material for the nest is elaborated, 

 so that it is in fact simply inspissated saliva, as has likewise 

 been shewn by chemical analysis. 



There has been a good deal of confusion about the species 

 composing this group ; and the particular one described by 

 Linnaeus, H. esculenta, has not been satisfactorily determined, but 

 it is most probably one of the common species, very badly described, 

 or mixed up with some other species. — Vide Horsf. Cat., p. 98, to 

 101, for a full account of the earlier history of the species. 



103. CoUocalia nidifica, Latham. 



Hirundo, apud Latham — Blyth, Cat. 428 — Horsf., Cat. 122 

 — H. brevirostris, McLeiland, P. Z. S. 1839^ — H. unicolor, Jerdon, 



