184 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



of Telliclierry ; besides, I dare say, others. I visited Sacrifice Rock 

 in March 1849. (It is so called because Hyder Ali was said to 

 have left state prisoners, and others occasionally, on this perfectly 

 bare rock, to die of hunger and thirst.) There is one cave here, 

 which had perhaps 50 to lOO^ests, and a few had eggs in them. 

 Very few of the nests were of the first make, these being 

 annually taken away by some Moplahs from the main-land. 

 The birds were at this time flying about, feeding on the flies 

 which abounded at the edge of the rock. About twenty couples, 

 perhaps, were present, not more. I doubt if all the places I have 

 enumerated on the Western coast would contain the nests of a 

 quarter of the number of these Swiftlets, which I have seen at once 

 in one locality. If so, where do the others breed? It has been 

 suggested that they may nestle in inland caves, but all my enqui- 

 ries have failed to discover any in India. Mr. Layard has, however, 

 visited some caves in Ceylon where they breed, and which he 

 has described in the 12th vol. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1853, 

 p. 168. 



I have seen this Swiftlet all throughout the Western ghats, and 

 even in Lower Malabar, on the sea-coast ; chiefly, however, in the 

 more elevated regions, such as Coorg, Wynaad, and the parts of 

 Mysore bordering the ghats ; but I never saw it in the Carnatic, 

 nor in the bare table-land, nor in Central India. At Darjeeling 

 it now and then comes in great numbers. Tickell, as quoted by 

 Blyth, says that it is a regular bird of passage at Darjeeling, flights of 

 them having been observed moving south-west in August. 1 have 

 seen it there as late as October, and at other times also. It occurs 

 always in large flocks, spread over a considerable tract of ground, 

 and flies with great speed, much more so than the last species (the 

 Palm Swift). 



The nest, when pure, and of the first make, is composed 

 entirely of inspissated mucus from the large salivary glands 

 of the bird. It is very small, bluntly triangular in form, and 

 slightly concave within ; of a semi-transparent fibrous sort of 

 texture, bluish-white in color, and with the fibres, as it were, 

 crossed and interlaced. When the nests of the first make are taken. 



