3 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
Iris brown ; bill black ; mouth flesh-colour ; feet pinkish ; claws dark 
horn. 
Length 7*25 inches, tail 3*3, wing 7'S, tarsus '45, bill from gape '8. The 
female is of the same size. 
A closely allied species is C. leuconyx, which differs chiefly in being 
smaller_, the wing usually not exceeding 6*2 inches. It occurs in some 
parts of India. 
I observed the White-rumped Barred Swift at various localities in the 
Pegu Division,, and Mr. Davison met with it in the southern half of 
Tenasserim. Birds of such immense power of flight as these Swifts are, 
however, not likely to be local ; and I have no doubt that this fine Swift 
will be found to occur not only over the whole of Tenasserim, but also 
over the w^hole of British Burmah. 
This species is met with, according to season, from Siberia and Japan 
down to Australia. Materials for tracing its migrations are, however, 
wanting. Its western limit in Siberia, so far as is at present known, is 
Lake Baikal, where it meets C. apus. Further south its western limit is 
Cachar and Tipperah. 
These Swifts are found in large flocks, generally flying at a vast height. 
I have only once seen them, in the course of many years, flying low 
enough to be within gunshot. I have noticed them during the greater 
part of the year, but I do not think that any remain in this country to 
breed. Their breeding-haants appear to be the islands off the coast of 
Southern China ; here Mr. Swinhoe observed them nesting in the holes of 
houses, often under eaves, and in many places in the crevices of rocks. 
402. CYPSELUS SUBFURCATUS. 
THE WHITE-RUMPED BLACK SWIFT. 
Cypselus subfurcatus, Bl. J. A. S. B. xviii. p. 807 ; Swinhoe, Ibis, 1863, p. 254 ; 
Sclater, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 602 ; Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 118 ; ITume, S. F. ii. p. 524; 
David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 69 ; Hume ^ I)av. S. F. vi. p. 47 ; Hume, S. F. 
viii. p. 84 ; Kelham, Ibis, 1881, p. 373. Cypselus leucopygialis, Cass. Proc. 
Ac. Phil. V. p. 58. 
Description. — iMale and female. Chin, throat and fore neck dull white, 
the shafts brown ; a band across the rump white, the shafts inconspicu- 
ously dark ; with these exceptions the whole plumage is very dark blackish 
brown, the head, back and abdomen being nearly pure glossy black. 
The legs and feet vary a good deal ; in one male and one female these 
parts were fleshy, tinged on the toes and claws with dark brown ; in the 
