CYPSELTJS. 23 



Major 0. T. Bingham says : — " Breeds at Allahabad in February, 

 March, and April, and again in July and August. And at Delhi 

 in March, April, and August." 



Colonel Butler, recording his experiences at Kurrachee and again 

 at Mount Aboo, tells us ■.—"Kurrachee, March 19th, 1877. A 

 colony of about 50 nests all stuck together inside the roof of a 

 verandah. Every nest contained two eggs without an exception ; 

 and all of the eggs were too much incubated to be blown. I saw 

 some hundreds of nests a few days later on the Oyster Rocks in 

 the Kurrachee Harboin-, and several more colonies in other parts 

 of Kurrachee. They lay all through the hot weather and in the 

 rains. 



'• Hundreds of the Common Indian Swift breed in the celebrated 

 Dilwarra temples at Mount Aboo." 



Captain Horace Terry says : — •" I wonder if these birds are 

 iniiueneed in building by the rains, or whether the following cir- 

 cumstance is mere chance. .Several pairs began to build in the 

 verandah of my bungalow at Bellary, in June 1877. It had then 

 been raining for a day or two and then suddenly ceased. The 

 birds then left ofi building and disappeared ; after that the rains 

 did not set in regularly till the latter end of the following month, 

 when the birds (presumably the same ones) returned, completed 

 the original nest, and reared their young." 



Writing from Sambur, Mr. E. M. Adam remarks ; — " This 

 Swift is very common, and builds in the old tombs and mosques. 

 I found a conr/eries of about thirty nests in a small tomb, and these 

 were all closely packed together ; some had openings at the sides, 

 while others had tubular-shaped necks about 2 inches long, pro- 

 jecting from the side of the nest. The nests were composed of 

 pieces of straw, fine twigs, cobwebs, and fluffy feathers, all agglu- 

 tinated together, with here and there some bright-coloured feather 

 of a Parrot or Eoller stuck carelessly on the outside. A nest 

 which I detached measured from openiog to eud 7j inches, in 

 breadth it was 4 inches, and the opening was 2 inches in diameter. 

 The nest was oval in form, coarse and lumpy in texture externally, 

 but comparatively smooth inside. The egg-cavity had a lining of 

 fine feathers, and the entrance was lined with fluffy feathers. 

 Nearly every nest contained a bird ; and in some cases I found 

 two birds." 



Dr. Jerdon states that " their nests are composed of feathers, 

 grass, straw, cotton rags, sometimes pieces of paper, agglutinated 

 firmly together by the secreted mucus of their sahvary glands, 

 occasionally, perhaps, mixed with mud and rubbish. The inside of 

 the nest is hard, glistening, and smooth, and feels, says Theobald, 

 ' like coarse cardboard-' They vary much in shape ; sometimes a 

 first year's nest is open at the top ; but they are usually closed, 

 and communicating at the side ; at times of moderate size, at other 

 times very large, and communicating by a sort of tubular neck. 

 They are very solid and heavy, and often closely packed together. 

 They are built against the rafters or beams, under the roofs of huts 



