266 NEEDLE-TAILED SWIFT. 
the Amur River, as well as about Lake Hanka, near Vladivostok, on 
the Sea of Japan. It is also met with in Mongolia, Manchuria, and 
the mountains of the Chinese Empire ; while in the cold season it 
migrates as far as Eastern Australia and Tasmania. It is said to 
return to its breeding-quarters about the end of April or early in 
May; departing for the south in August and September; and 
Prjevalsky has described its bands as passing over-head in an almost 
incessant stream at the time of the autumn migration in Mongolia. 
In the Himalayas and Assam the representative species is A. nudipes. 
Several pairs are stated by the above-mentioned Russian explorer 
to breed in close proximity, the nests being placed in cliffs, or in 
hollow trees; the eggs are probably white. ‘The food consists of 
insects ; the note is described as feeble ; while all observers agree in 
eulogizing the unrivalled vigour of the bird’s flight. Gould remarks 
that the keel of the breast in this species is more than ordinarily 
deep, and that the pectoral muscles are more developed than in any 
bird of the same weight with which he was acquainted. 
The adult has the forehead dull white ; crown, nape and sides of 
the head dusky black, with a greenish gloss ; back dusky brown, paler 
in the middle ; wing-coverts and secondaries bottle-green; inner 
secondaries chiefly white on the inner webs; primaries blackish ; 
tail-feathers bottle-green, with projecting spinous shafts; throat, breast 
and under tail-coverts white ; belly sooty-brown ; lower flanks white, 
mixed with glossy blue-black ; bill black; legs and feet dark brown, 
with one claw directed backwards: in which respect birds of this 
genus differ from the true Swifts. Length 8 in. ; wing 8°1 in. 
The vignette below represents the head and left foot of the Night- 
jar, the next species. 
