94 A List of Birds from the Khasi hills Sf-c. [No. 2, 



76. Athene firama, Tern. 



79. Athene cuculoides, Vigors. 



Order, INSES SORES. 



Fam. Hirtjndinid.e. 



82. Sir undo rustica, L. 



Breeding at Asalu in April in the high roofs of the Naga houses. 

 The specimens shot were small, only 1 2 inches in extent. Jerdon 

 mentions this bird as arriving early in July in Upper Burma ; 

 they thus probably breed along the whole line of high hills from 

 the Burrail and Patkoi ranges into North Burma etc. 



102a. Cypselus tectorum, Jerdon, Proc. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 

 Feb., 1870, p. 61. Differs from C. batassiensis, Gray, in being far 

 darker with a shorter tail, the feet and claws of the latter species 

 being also much stronger and larger. Dr. Jerdon, to whom I 

 gave a specimen of this bird, pronounced it at once a different 

 species. 



This little Swift was numerous in the Naga villages around 

 Asalu in March and April, and was then breeding in the roofs 

 of the houses ; a nest that I obtained was attached to the up- 

 per surface of a kind of palm leaf, in the thatch of a house ; it is 

 a neat very shallow construction of a fluffy grass seed, stuck to- 

 gether with saliva, a feather or two intermingled with the grass. 

 The eggs were two in number, pure white, resting against the 

 lower side of the nest, which is just of sufficient depth to retain 

 them, so that the parent bird can hardly be said to sit on her eggs 

 in the nest, but rather hangs on to it, in apparently a most uncom- 

 fortable position, and how the young when hatched remain with 

 safety in the nest, it is difficult to understand, unless the power of 

 hanging on by the claws is thus early developed. The nest is about 

 2£ inches in diameter. 



On the Peak of Hengdon at the head of the Jhiri river, at 

 an elevation of 7000 feet, the ridge on its west face being almost 

 perpendicular for several 100 feet, a very large Swift was com- 

 mon, flying with great velocity, it may have been Acanthylis cauda- 

 cuta, Lath., but I was unable to bring one down ; they shot past 

 like lightning and often well within shot. 



