Birds of Celebes: Cypselidae. 
337 
Young. The under surface marked irregularly with huff feathers, which are white at the 
base and tipped with brownish black; the tertials are white, and the primaries and 
secondaries strongly tipped wdth that colour (Guillem. 5). 
Changing plumage. Young birds assuming the adult dress have a curious appearance. The fea- 
thers of immatiu’ity are pale hrown, tipped with white, with subterminal black bars, those 
of the upper parts are dull blackish hrown with buff-brown edges; these are mixed 
with the grey or glossy blackish feathers of maturity (cf juv. Palopo, 22. 1. 95: Sar.). 
Variation. A series of specimens from E. Celebes, Peling and Banggai prove to be more 
bronzy on the head and wing-coverts than others from North Celebes, which show 
stronger tints of steel-blue; still two examples from the latter locality do not differ 
from the specimens in question. 
Measurements. Wing 171 (juv.) — 190 (adult); tail 92 (juv.) — 124 (adult); rictus 19.5—20.9; 
tarsus 8.0 circa (W. Blasius 6, and specimens Dr. Mus.). 
Eggs and nest. Unknown. 
Distribution. Celebes Province — Southern Peninsula: Macassar (Wallace a 1, 10), Tjamba 
(Platen 6), Luwu and Boni (AVeber 11), Palopo (P. & F. Sarasin); Northern Penin- 
sula: Minahassa (Wallace 10, Meyer 3, etc.), Talissi Id. (Hickson 8), Banka Id. 
(Nat. Coll, in Dresd. Mus.), Togian Islands (Meyer 5); E. Peninsula, Tonkean (Nat. 
Coll.); Peling and Banggai (iid.); Sula Islands (Allen a 3, 10). 
This species is most nearly related to M. longipennis (Rafin.) = klecho 
Horsf., which ranges from Tenasserim to Java and Borneo. M. wallacei differs 
by its larger size (wing about 178 as against 165 mm), the bluer — less green 
— tint of the upper parts, the lighter grey of the under surface, and in the 
male adult the darker chestnut of the earcoverts (Buttik. 11, Hartert 10). 
The genus Macroptergx is separated as a family, Dendrochelonidae, by Lucas 
(Auk 1889, 8), and as a subfamily of the Cypselidae by Hartert, who regards 
it as an approach to the Caprimulgidae. Among the Swifts it seems to be related 
to the Chaeturinae, also marked off as a subfamily in the Catalogue of Birds. 
In the typical Swifts, Cypselinae, the front toes contain each only three plalanges: 
in Chaetura and Macropteryx the normal numbers — five in the outer toe, four 
in the middle toe — are seen. In their peculiar nesting-habits, the 3Iacroptery- 
gmae offer, as Hartert remarks, a striking correspondence with the curious 
nidification of the Goatsucker, Batmchostomus . Bernstein seems to have been 
the first to discover the nidification of Macropteryx, and his admirable obser- 
vations (J. f. O. 1859, 184) on M.kleclu) in Java remain unsuiyiassed in fullness 
and interest. “It chooses”, he says, “a free-standing branch, high in the crown 
of a tree, to build its nest on. If the choice of such a spot is remarkable for 
a member of the family of the Cypselidae, the relations in size between the bird, 
nest, and egg are far more remarkable. The nests, by its more or less semi- 
circular form and the manner in which the component materials are bound 
together, calls to mind to some extent the nests of the Collocaliae; it is however 
much smaller and flatter than these. The nests measured by me were in depth 
about 10 mm by 30—40 mm broad against 50 mm in those of the much smaller 
C. nidpim (esculenta Horsf.). The nest is always found on a horizontal branch, 
usually not more than an inch thick, which at the same time forms the hinder 
Meyer & Wiglesworth, Birds of 06161)65 (Nov. 1st, 1897). 43 
