8744 



Birds. 



true that Australia does render us one species of swift, the Chsetura 

 caudacuta of Latham, Hirundo ciris of Pallas, differing chiefly from 

 its Himalayan ally, C. nudipes of Hodgson, in its white forehead ; but 

 its movements are by no means regular. The Chaetura I never saw 

 but once at Amoy, and that was after heavy, stormy weather, when a 

 pair were seen, one afternoon, in company with numbers of the pre- 

 sent species, and one of them was procured. The C. caudacuta, in 

 its wanderings, seems sometimes to range into Amoorland, as noted 

 by Von Schrenck, and thence even to England [see Zool. 1492] ; but 

 these instances must, I think, at present, until more facts are ascer- 

 tained, be looked upon as certain vagaries that long-winged birds are 

 guilty of, which " no fellow can understand," rather than as regular 

 migrations ordained to occur year after year. 



15. Cypselus subfurcatus, Blyth. This swift is larger, much blacker, 

 and with less furcate tail than its near ally, C. affinis of J. E. Gray, 

 from continental India. Mr. Blyth has identified it as his Malayan 

 species. It is locally distributed about South China, being generally 

 resident in places where it occurs. It builds a nest under the eaves 

 and rafters of houses much in the form of the house martin (Chelidon 

 urbica), but the exterior coating of it differs in being composed of 

 thin layers of wool, hair and dried grass, glued one above the other 

 with the saliva of the bird, and lined internally with feathers. These 

 nests serve the owners for a house all the winter through. In them 

 they rear their young (only one brood in the year), in them they roost 

 every night, and to them they frequently return during the day for 

 rest after their long-sustained flights. The pairs keep together all the 

 year, mingling, however, in small parties with others of the species 

 from the same neighbourhood. These parties never seem to wan- 

 der far, but seek their Dipterous food close to their homes, regulating 

 the altitudes of their flight according to the state of the atmosphere ; 

 and when a pair are anxious for rest they leave the flock and fly down 

 to their nests for repose, in which they remain twittering for half an 

 hour at a time, and then dart out, pursuing and screaming after one 

 another. In the spring they patch up the same nest, and use it as 

 before till the close of the year. They seem to be very gentle birds, 

 and greatly attached to one another. A pair built a nest under the 

 beam of a verandah in my house at Amoy, and occupied the same for 

 three years. I had thus ample opportunities of watching their habits. 

 At Apes' Hill, Formosa, I met with this species again. , Here it was 

 nesting, not, however, under the roofs of houses, but in its primitive state 

 under the ledges of rocks, building the same martin-like nest. It was 



