110 THE BIRDS OF OALCUTTA. 



Kashmir, and in Calcutta itself the little Palm Swift 

 (Tachornis batassiensis) may be found as well as the 

 House Swift. The Palm Swift is a considerably 

 smaller and slenderer bird than the domestic species, 

 with a well-forked tail and plain drab plumage all 

 over ; it is not a very rapid flyer, and keeps near the 

 palms, on the fronds of which it fastens its tiny cup- 

 like nest of plant-d,own or feather, stuck together 

 and fastened in one of the furrows of the leaf by 

 the usual salivary cement. There was a small 

 colony inhabiting a tall fan-palm in the Museum 

 compound. 



Wherever the fan-palm grows in India the Pabn 

 Switt takes up its abode, but the house bird, not 

 being so fastidious in its requirements, is at home 

 wherever there are cHfEs or buildings in Africa and 

 India, and the intervening countries ; indeed, I first 

 made its acquaintance at Mombasa in one of the 

 offices of the British East Africa Company nearly 

 a dozen years ago. East of India the House-Swift 

 is blacker and sports a longer forked tail, and so 

 claims rank as a distinct species {Cypselus subfurcatus), 

 but to go into the Swifts of the Indian region would 

 be getting too far away from tlfe birds of Calcutta 

 altogether, so that I will confine myself to further 

 stating that the little producer of the best quality of 

 edible nests {Collocalie francica) breeds in the 



