Common Birds of Western Himalayas 



season — that is to say, in April and May in the 

 Himalayas — hoopoes continually utter in low 

 tones uk-uk-uk. The call is not unlike that of 

 the coppersmith, but less metallic and much 

 more subdued. The flight of the hoopoe is 

 undulating or jerky, like that of a butterfly. 

 Young hoopoes are reared up in a hole in a 

 building, or in a bank. The nest is incredibly 

 malodoriferous. 



THE CYPSELID.^ OR SWIFT FAMILY 



The flight and general appearance of the 

 swifts have already been described. The 

 common Indian swift (Cypselus a finis) is 

 perhaps the bird most frequently seen in the 

 Himalayas. A small dark sooty brown bird 

 with a broad white bar across the back, a living 

 monoplane that dashes through the air at the 

 rate of lOO miles an hour, continually giving 

 vent to what Jerdon has so well described as 

 a " shivering scream," can be none other than 

 this species. It nests under the eaves of houses 

 or in verandahs. Hundreds of these swifts 

 nest in the Landour bazar, and there is scarcely 

 a dak bungalow or a deserted building in the 

 whole of Kumaun which does not afford nest- 

 ing sites for at least a dozen pairs of swifts. 



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