COLLOCALIA. 35 



Sometimes four or five will come in together, and all cluster in 

 a lump where the moss is to be stuck, aud then a great twittering 

 and skirmishing ensues, till of a sudden all but one, who is left 

 wagging his head over the moss, disappear with a sudden dash. 



Subsequently Capt. Wimberley sent me a nest with two eggs, 

 and remarked: — ^" This was built on to the white-painted ceiling 

 of my house. The little birds have been trying- to get a footing 

 there for two years. This is the first time that they have been 

 successful." The nest is rather peculiar, a very loose basket-work 

 of fine roots, rendered perfectly stiff and firm by inspissated saliva, 

 which, however, has only been applied in sufficient quantities to 

 stiffen the roots and attach them firmly together, so that only the 

 barest film can here and there be detected, except along the line 

 of junction with the ceiling, where the attachment has been 

 effected with a film of pure brownish-white gelatine, if I may 

 so term it. The nest is 3 inches wide, and projected 2 inches. 

 The eggs are similar to those we obtained; one measured 0-71 

 by 0-46. 



Collocalia spodiopygia (Peale). Peak's Swiftlet. 



Collocalia spodiopygia {Peak), Hume, Rough Draft N. S,- E. no. 103 

 quat. 



Peale's Swiftlet also breeds in several of the Andaman and 

 Nicobar Islands. 



As yet it has only been found nesting in caves, though the time 

 may come when, like other members of the family, it may resort to 

 buildings. 



I found the eggs in a cave on Little Button Island of the An- 

 daman Archipelago on the 21st March, but I do not know whether 

 they have a second brood. The nest, except just at its junction 

 with the rock (where it is brownish), is composed of the most ex- 

 quisitely silvery white gelatine. Exteriorly the surface is com- 

 pact and somewhat roughened in laminae ; interiorly it is a network 

 of the finest and whitest threads, reminding one of the Eaplcctella. 

 The true nest, which is pure white, and in shape rather more than 

 half of a shallow cup, is from 2 to 2| inches broad, stands out 

 from Ig to nearly 2 inches from the wall, and varies interiorly in 

 depth from httle more than | to a full inch. The attachment 

 films and foundation below the true nest, both of which are brown, 

 vary excessively according to the site chosen for the nest ; in some 

 they are almost wanting; in others the film extends for an inch 

 on either side beyond the nest, and the foundation below the 

 most projecting point of the true nest may be I5 inches in depth. 



The edge of the true nest all round is blunt, like that of an ivory 

 paper-cutter, and the sides gradually increase as they approach the 

 bottom to the thickness of |, or occasionally even g inch. Of 

 course the nests vary in outline, as well as in size and depth, but 



3* 



