Birds of Celebes: Cypselidae. 
329 
There is in the Dresden Museum a single specimen, killed by Meyer’s 
hunters in Siao, which we somewhat doubtfully identify as a young one of this 
species. The only other known species it could belong to is C. leuconyx Blyth, 
“as yet only known from the Himalayas and rocky hills of Central India, but”, 
says Mr. Hartert, “further investigation will probably add more to the know- 
ledge of its distribution”. Of this form Hume (10) remarks it is altogether 
a much smaller bird: wing 150 to 158 as a maximum; the under surface with 
much narrower and less marked white fringes than in yadjicus\ the whole of 
the feet (not the claws, as has been erroneously stated) very pale-coloured, al- 
most albescent in some specimens. In C.pacificus Hume finds the wing varies 
from 178 to 190. The specimen from Siao — wing 167 mm — is thus inter- 
mediate between C. leuconyx and C.pacificus in size, but, since leuconyx is said 
not to exceed 158 mm in the wing, the smallness of the Siao specimen seems 
only to be explained on the ground that it is a young specimen of the larger 
species. The white fringes on the under surface are hardly noticeable, but the 
ends of most of the feathers are worn off. 
Swinhoe found this species to be only a summer visitor to China, arriving 
in the spring and going south in the winter. Taczanowski records its migra- 
tions in S. E. Siberia. Its range extends to South Australia, where, as Mr. 
Hartert remarks, it is probably a winter visitor. Gould also 50 years ago 
believed that such would prove to be the case. 
Australian ornithologists, so far as we have been able to ascertain, have 
not made any further observations on this interesting subject, except that Cox 
and Hamilton record it as seen among flocks of Chaetura caudacuta., a Swift with 
a similar range, observed in New South Wales from December to April and in 
July and August (P.L. S., N.S.W. 1889, 2“'^ ser., IV, 399). 
GENUS CHAETURA Steph. 
The Pin-tailed Swifts are easily distinguished by the shafts of the rectrices 
which project beyond the webs as sharp, strong spines. The toes have the 
normal number of phalanges, the tarsus is naked. 
About 30 species, of almost cosmopolitan distribution. 
* 104. CHAETURA OELEBENSIS (ScL). 
Steel-blue Pin-tailed Swift. 
Plate XII. 
a. Chaetura gigantea var. celebensis (1) Sclat., P. Z. S. 1865, 608; J. f. O. 1867, 130. 
h. Hirundinapus giganteus {1} Wald, (nec Temm.), Tr. Z. S. 1872, YIH, 46. 
e. Chaetura gigantea (1) Rosenb., Malay. Arcbip. J878, 271. 
d. Hirundinapus celebensis {!) Salvad., Ann. Mus. Civ. G-en. 1878, XII, 320; (2) W. Bias. 
J. f. 0. 1883, 114. 
- Meyer & Wigleswortli, Birds of Celebes (Nov. 1st, 1897). 
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