PI CAR 1^1. 

 Fam. CYPSELID^E. 



Bill very small, but with the gape enormous, unfurnished with rictal bristles ; tip hooked. 

 Wings very long and pointed, with ten primaries. Tail variable, short and even, or long and 

 much forked, of ten feathers. Legs and feet small and feeble ; hind toe either directed forward 

 or more or less reversible to the front. 



Sternum with the keel very deep. Humerus very short. Throat furnished with large 

 salivary glands. 



Genus CH^TUEA. 

 Bill very small, triangular, the gape receding far back and very wide ; culmen curved, flattened 

 at the base, the tip hooked. Nostrils exposed. Wings very long and pointed. The humerus 

 and ulna very short ; the 1st quill the longest; the inner very short, imparting a sickle-shape to 

 the wing. Tail short, even or rounded at the tip ; the shafts rigid, very acute, and projecting 

 some distance from the web. Tarsus short, stout, feathered just below the knee, and the rest 

 covered with a naked skin. The three front toes nearly equal, the hallux directed backward but 

 reversible to the front ; claws stout, deep, and much curved. 



CH.ETURA GIGANTEA. 



(THE BROWN-NECKED SPINE-TAIL.) 



Cypselus giganteus (V. Hasselt), Temm. PI. Col. 364 (1825). 



Acanthylis caudacuta, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 84 (1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. 



p. 118 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 170. 

 Acanthylis gigantea, .Tend. B. of Ind. i. p. 172 (1862); Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 410; 



Bail, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 55 ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 280; Tweeddale, Blyth, B. Burmah, 



ext. no. 1875, p. 84. no. 183. 

 Chcetura gigantea, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 608. 

 Choetura indica, Hume, Str. Feath, 1873, p. 471, et 1876, p. 286. 

 Uirundinapus giganteus, Walden, Ibis, 1874, p. 131. 



The Weedle-tailed Swallow, Lath. Gen. Synopsis ; The Spiny-tailed Swift, Kelaart. 

 Wmhoslaniya, Sinhalese. 



Adult i from three Ceylonese specimens). Total length, estimated from skins, 9-5 inches ; wing 7 - 8 to 7 - 95, reaching 

 1 •") beyond tail when closed ; tail 2-7 to 2-9, bare shafts of central feathers 0-35 to 0-4 ; tarsus 0-65 to 0-7 ; middle 

 toe 0*5, its claw (straight) 0'35 : bill to gape 1*0. 



Iris brown ; bill blackish or dark brown ; legs and feet livid brown or fleshy purple, claws blackish brown. 



1 1 ead, back and sides of neck, upper part of back, anterior scapular feathers, wings, sides of rump, and upper tail-coverts 

 shining green-black, glossed on the wing-coverts, secondaries, and sides of rump more or less with blue ; back 



