20 CYPSELTD^. 



with a large clasp-knife. It is in the larger nests that the King- 

 fishers' nest-holes are excavated. The tunnel, about 2 or 2| 

 inches in diameter, is in the centre of the ants' nest, and goes iu 

 for about 6 inches, A\here it terminates in a chamber about 7 inches 

 in diameter ; the bottom of the chamber contains a quantity of 

 pulverized earth. I saw the bird fly out of two of the nests, and 

 shot the female above referred to as she was entering the third." 



The egg in question is of the purest white, quite devoid of gloss 

 (which it would probably have laid in the normal fashion instead 

 of being obtained by a csesarian operation), is a broad oval, some- 

 what pointed towards the smaller end, and measures 1'16 by 

 0-98 inch. 



The late Mr. A. de Eoepstorff furnished me with the following 

 note: — "I got two eggs on the 13th March, 1875 ; the nest was 

 in a hollow white ants' nest in a mangrove-swamp, attached to a 

 cocoanut-tree ; a female bird was caught in the nest. These nests 

 are very common all over the place. The bird keeps dodging 

 round and round and suddenly it disappears. A Xicobar man saw 

 this one, ran up and stopped the hole with a cloth, and we dug 

 out mother and eggs." 



Order CORACIiE. 



Family CYPSELID^. 

 Subfamily CYPSELIN^. 



Cypselus melba (Linn.). The Alpine Swift. 



Cypselus melba {Linn.), Jerd, B. Ind, i, p. 175; Hume, Rough 

 'Draft y. 4" H. no. 98. 



I have never taken the eggs of the Alpine Swift, nor do I know 

 auythiug positive of its nidifioation within our hmits. 1 have, 

 ho\^'ever, se\-eral of their nests sent me by Miss Cockburn from 

 near Kotagherry (Xilghiris). 



They had been built against a rock more or less overhung by 

 slabs of rock. They consist chiefly of feathers firmly cemented 

 together with saliva, but vegetable fibre of different kinds of dry 

 grass also formed part of the thick, coarse, felt-hke mass. 



Three or four nests at least appear to have been grouped 

 together in one mass. One chamber, vihich is perfect, measiu-es 

 about 5 inches in diameter and was about 3 to 4 inches in height. 

 The walls of the nest average about an inch in thickness, but in 

 many places, owing to the necessary fillings-in where the more or 

 less circular chambers meet each other there is a much greater 



