A NESTING PLACE OF MICROPUS SUBFURCATUS 
IN MINDORO 
By Dean C. Worcester 
Of Cebu., Cebu, P. 1. 
On May 13, 1919, having had occasion to explore the Caguray 
River, in Mindoro, I was resting in the shade of a great over- 
hanging rock forming one side of the gap through which this 
stream finally leaves the mountains, when I noticed, only a few 
feet above my head, several nests of the common Asiatic barn 
swallow ( Hirundo javanica Sparrman). Shortly afterward a 
carrier poked one of these nests down with a short stick, and 
from the resulting debris took tv/o small birds, which on exam- 
ination I found, to my surprise, to be young swifts. A moment 
afterward I saw a large, white-rumped swift enter the opening 
in the rock from which this nest had been removed. This bird 
flew away in a moment, but continued to return at frequent in- 
tervals, apparently puzzled by the loss of its young. 
A more careful inspection of the underside of this overhanging 
rock showed, at a considerable distance above the ground, a 
series of grayish-colored nests, which blended so well with the 
rock that I had not previously noticed them. They gave the im- 
pression of being somewhat bottle-shaped, with the necks of the 
bottles usually directed inward toward the sloping face of the 
rock, the openings for entrance and egress being at the ends 
of the necks. In some instances there were merely round open- 
ings in the sides of the nests, and in two cases the nests were 
in holes in the rock, with their round openings directed outward. 
By means of a long bamboo pole I succeeded in dislodging 
several nests. I found them to be composed almost exclusively 
of feathers, with which were intermingled a very limited number 
of bamboo leaves, a few other small leaves, and a very few 
blades of grass, the feathers having evidently belonged to a 
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