Genus COLLOCALIA. 

 Bill smaller and more hooked than in Ci/pselus. Wings with the 1st quill considerably 

 shorter than the 2nd. Tail slightly forked, and the tips of the feathers rounded. Tarsi and 

 feet very small and feeble ; tarsus naked, the hind toe directed backward and only partially 

 reversible. 



COLLOCALIA FRANCICA. 



(THE INDIAN SWIFTLET.) 



Collocalia francica, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 1017. no. 15 (1788); Walden, Ibis, 1874, p. 132. 



Hirundo irevirostris, M'Clelland, P. Z. S. 1839, p. 155. 



ffirundo imicolor, Jerdon, Madr. Journ. Sc. xi. p. 238 (1840). 



Collocalia nidifica, G. R. Gray, Gen. Birds, i. p. 55. no. 1 (1844); Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. 



A. S. B. p. 86 (1849); Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. 1. Co. i. p. 98 (1854); 



Bernestein, J. f. O. 1859, p. 118; Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 182 (1862); Legge, Ibis, 



1874, p. 13. 

 Collocalia brevirostris, Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 118; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, 



xii. p. 168. 

 Collocalia fuciphaga, Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 420. 

 Collocalia miicolor, Bourdillon and Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, pp. 374, 375. 

 Esculent Swallow of Latham and Stephens ; Indian Edible-nest Swiftlet. 

 Wwhwlaniya, Sinhalese. 



Adult mnli' iiml f, urn!, . Length 4-5 to 4 - 8 inches; wing 4-1 to 4'6, reaching OS to 1*1 beyond the tail; tail 1'9 to 



2-1 ; tarsus 0-1 : middle toe and claw about - 4 ; bill to gape 0-4. 

 Iris brown ; bill black, vinous-brown at base ; legs and feet dusky fleshy reddish, in some fleshy brown. 

 Above uniform dark smoke-brown, with a green lustre on the back, wings, and tail ; primaries and tail deep glossy 



brown ; the feathers of the rump albescent at the margins near the base, the light portions concealed beneath 



the overlying feathers; lores whitish at the base and tipped black; beneath glossy mouse-grey, palest on the 



neck and chest ; the under tail-coverts with a slightly greenish gloss. 



Young. The nestling is plumaged like the adult as soon as fledged ; the tips of the quills finely margined with 



albescent . 

 The skin of the unfeathered chick is dark brown ; and the head becomes quite feathered before the body commences, 



the scapulars following next. 



Ohs. No little confusion has existed in the synonymy of this and the Javan Swiftlet, C. fuciphaga of Thuuberg ; and 

 ornithologists are therefore much indebted to Lord Tweeddale for his note on these species in the 'Ibis,' 1874, 

 in which Indian, Ceylonese, and Andaman specimens of the species are shown to be identical with those from 

 Mauritius and Seychelles. His lordship writes me that a specimen which I have lately forwarded him for 

 examination is identical with birds from the Nilghiris, Darjiling, Andamans, and Malacca. The peculiarity of 

 this species is that the tips of the concealed basal parts of the webs of the dorsal feathers are albescent, which 

 increases in paleness towards the rump, showing in some specimens on the surface of the plumage and imparting 

 a light appearance to that region. I regret that I did not collect more examples of this Swiftlet while in Ceylon ; 

 in the several that I have examined this latter degree of paleness has not been perceptible on the surface of the 

 rump-plumage, although the basal portions of the feathers exhibit the above-mentioned character. Layard, in his 

 correspondence with Blyth on the subji ct of this Nwiftlet's nesting, writes of it as C. nidifica, but styled it C. brevi- 

 rostris in his published notes, an older til le bestowed by M'Clelland on a specimen from Assam, but which Mr. Hume 

 is of opinion in reality applies to Cypselus infumatus, Sclater. Gmelin's title has not yet come into use in the pages 



