vent, and under tail-coverts pure white, rest of the underparts sooty brown, but the lower flanks are 

 white mixed with glossy blue-black ; bill black ; legs livid purplish ; iris deep brown. Total length 

 about 8 - 5 inches, gape - 75, wing 8"1, tail 2-4, tarsus 07. 



Adult Female. Resembles the male, but is rather smaller in size. 



This Swift, one of the larger species of the genus, inhabits Asia, ranging south to Australia, 

 and has only, so far as I can ascertain, occurred twice in the Western Palsearctic Region — 

 on both occasions in Great Britain. At first I was undecided as to the propriety of including 

 it, as it had only been once killed ; but now that a second example, undoubtedly genuine, has 

 been obtained, there can be no question that it ought to be included ; besides, as it breeds in the 

 same districts as the Yellow-browed Warbler, which has been frequently obtained in Europe, it 

 is the more probable that it will again be met with here. The first example was shot at Great 

 Horkesley, near Colchester, on the 8th July 1846, and was examined in the flesh by Yarrell, 

 Doubleday, and others ; and the second, which was accompanied by another bird of the same 

 species, was obtained near Ringwood, in Hampshire, in July 1S79, was exhibited at the meeting 

 of the Zoological Society on the 6th January, 1880, by Professor Newton; and I then had an 

 opportunity of personally examining it, which I did most carefully, and am quite satisfied as to 

 its genuineness. 



The true summer home of this species is in North-eastern Asia ; and it winters in Australia. 



According to Von Schrenck (Vog. Amurl. p. 252), it occurs in considerable numbers, and 

 regularly, in the Amoor, remaining there from May to July. Maack obtained it on the 24th 

 May, O. S., on the Upper Amoor, near the mouth of the Oldoi, and on the 8th (20th) June 

 between the mouths of the Sungari and Ussuri, when he shot five. Von Schrenck himself saw 

 large numbers on the 22nd July, O. S., on the Lower Amoor, near the mouth of the Pachssa, in 

 49° N. lat., and in the following summer, on the 6th (18th) July, near the mouth of the Ussuri. 

 He remarks that he never saw one settle on a tree or rock, though they often pass close to them. 

 Pallas and Dr. Radde met with it in South-east Siberia ; and, according to Steller, it nests in 

 rocks on the banks of the Angara in June, July, and August. Dr. Radde writes as follows : — 

 "I first met with this bird on the 12th August 1859, on the elevated ridge which separates the 

 Kaja valley, near Irkutsk, from the Angara valley ; and I recognized it by its flight, and more 

 especially by the white on its flanks. Here these Swifts were generally observed towards evening 

 in large numbers, flying very close to the ground. I did not, however, observe them during my 

 hunting-expeditions in the spring of 1855 ; and in the Bureja Mountains I looked in vain for it 

 in the summer of 1857 ; nor did it appear in the elevated Sabbatsch plateaux until the latter part 

 of August, and disappeared again altogether on the 1st of September. It appeared to be then 

 migrating towards the south-east; but in the summer small parties are seen flying about: and 

 they are then not always observed in steep rocky localities; for on several occasions I saw individuals 

 on the open plains which are situated between the Sungari and the Ussuri. Above the Bureja 

 Mountains I found them most abundant on the eastern slope of the Chingan Mountains, where 

 I usually saw them on the lowlands, which were covered with lofty pines. Here they frequented 

 clearings, and in flying about seemed to follow regular aerial paths, time after time in succession, 

 threading their way through the umbrella-shaped crowns of the pine trees. On the banks of 



