SWALLOW. 323 



57.— INDIAN SWIFT. 



SIZE uncertain. General colour of the plumage dusky black ; 

 fail hollowed out at the end, or very little forked ; the wings exceed 

 the end of the tail in as great a proportion asjn our Species, to which 

 it has great resemblance ; but differs from that, chiefly in wanting the 

 white chin, and having the tail scarcely forked; the eggs two in 

 number, and white. 



Inhabits India. — Sir J. Anstruther. 



58— WHITE-BELLIED SWIFT. 



Hirundo Melba, Ind. Orn. ii. 582. Lin. i. 345. Gm. Lin. i. 1023. Faun, arag.90. 



Gerin. iv. t. 413. 

 Hirundo major Hispanica, Bris. ii. 504. Jd. 8vo. i. 299. Klein, 83. iv. 2. 

 Cypselus alpinus, Tern. Man. d'Orn. 270. Id. Ed. ii. p. 433. 

 Hirundo alpina, Scop. i. No. 252. Bechst. Deutsch. Ed.W. V. 3. 935. 

 Le grand Martinet a ventre blanc, Buf. vi. 660. 

 Greatest Martin or Swift, Edw. pi. 27. Russ. Alep. p. 70. 

 White-bellied Swift, Gen. Syn. iv. 586. Shaw's Zool. x. p. 74. 



LENGTH eight inches and a half; breadth fifteen inches, 

 weight two ounces and five drachms. Bill half an inch, somewhat 

 bent, and black ; irides brown; plumage above grey brown; wings 

 and tail deeper than the rest, with a gloss of red or green in some 

 lights ; throat, breast, and belly, white ; on the neck a collar of 

 grey brown, mixed with blackish ; sides dusky and white mixed ; 

 lower belly and under tail coverts like the back ; legs flesh-colour, 

 covered with feathers before, and on the inside ; all the toes placed 

 forward ; tail forked as in the Common Swift, and consists of ten 

 feathers. 



This species inhabits the mountainous parts of Spain; is found 

 also in plenty on the borders of the Rhone in Savoy, Isle of Malta, 

 Alps of Switzerland ; comes into Savoy the beginning of April, and 



T t 2 



