CYPSELUS BATASSIENSIS. 



(THE PALM-SWIFT.) 



Cypselus batassiensis, Gray, Griff. An. Kingd. ii. p. 60 (1829) ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. 



E. I. Co. p. 128 (1854) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 180 ; Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 340 ; Sclater, 



P. Z. S. 1865, p. 602 ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 420. 

 Cypselus balasiensis, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 86 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. 



Hist. 1853, xii. p. 167. 

 Cypselus balisiensis, Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 117. 

 Cypselus palmarum, Gray & Hardwicke, 111. Ind. Zool. i. pi. 35 (1832) ; Hume, Nests and 



Eggs, i. p. 87; Ball, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 384. 

 Putta-deuli and Tart ababil, Hind.; Tal-chatta, Bengal, lit. "Palm-Swallow;" Batassia, 



Bengal (Jerdon); ChamchiM, Beng., a name also applied to Bats (Blyth). 

 Woehoelaniya, Sinhalese. 



Adult male and female. Length 5 - ] to 5*3 inches; wing 4 - 3 to 4- 7 ; tail 2-4 to 2-8, outer feather I/O longer than the 



middle ; tarsus - 4 ; middle toe and claw 032 ; bill to gape 0-5. The wings reach 0-5 beyond tail, which is deeply 



forked, with the feathers pointed at the tips. 

 Iris sepia-brown ; bill black ; legs and feet vinous-brown ; claws blackish. 

 Above glossy ash-brown, darkest on the head and tail ; the lower back and rump paler than the interscapular region 



and with dark shafts to the feathers : quills blackish brown, with the internal margins slightly paler than the rest, 

 liases of the loral feathers white ; beneath mouse-grey ; the under tail-coverts with dark shafts, and the flanks darker 



than the breast. 



Young. On leaving the nest the young bird is clothed like the adult, but the upper surface is not so glossy. 



Distribution. — The little Palm-Swift is the most numerous of its genus in Ceylon, and is found throughout 

 the entire low country and sub-hill region. It is seen now and then in the Kandy district ; but is not a 

 permanent resident there, and on the Uva side of the Central Province it ascends from the plains in fine 

 weather to a considerable altitude, Mr. Bligh informing me that he has seen it in Haputale as high as 4000 feet. 

 It is a common bird in the south aud west of the island, and more numerous on the sea-board than in the 

 interior. In the palmyra-districts, on the northern coasts, it is very abundant, and is the only Swift, as far as 

 1 can ascertain, which commonly affects the Jaffna peninsula and adjacent islands. 



As regards the Palm-Swift's distribution in India, Jerdon informs us that it is abundant in all districts 

 where palmyra- and cocoannt-palms arc found, and that it is common on the Malabar coast, the Carnatic, the 

 northern Circars, and Bengal, but rare in the central tableland and North-west Provinces. In Chota Nagpur 

 Mr. Ball says it is found in abundance where its favourite trees are common, and so local is it that he has 

 i bserved a small colony settled in a single tree, where, perhaps, for many miles around not another tree or 

 Swift could be found. It is said to extend into Assam aud Burmah; but this can only be as a straggler, as it 

 is not recorded in ' Stray Feathers ' from either Pegu or Tenasserim ; it is replaced in these provinces by 

 Cypselus infumatus, the Sooty, or, as called by some, the " Palm Roof-Swift." It has not as yet been procured 

 in Sindh. 



Habits. — The localities preferred by this Swift arc fields and open lands in the vicinity of cocoanut- and 

 palmyra-groves. In the northern parts of the island it is seen much about the sea-shore, which is, in many 

 places, completely lined with the widely spread Borassus palm, its favourite tree all over India; indeed Jerdon 

 remarks that it is seldom found at any distance from where this palm grows. This, however, is not its 

 habit in Ceylon ; for it abounds iu many parts of the Western Province, where the tree is unknown, but 

 where its place is supplied by the cocoanut, and particularly the arcca-palm, around which latter it careers 



