P 1 C A R I iE. 
Fam. CYPSELIDiE. 
Bill very small, but with the gape enormous, unfurnished with rictal bristles ; tip hooked. 
Wings very long and pointed, with ten primaries. Tail variable, short and even, or long and 
much forked, of ten feathers. Legs and feet small and feeble ; hind toe either directed forward 
or more or less reversible to the front. 
Sternum with the keel very deep. Humerus very short. Throat furnished with large 
salivary glands. 
Genus ClIiETURA. 
Bill very small, triangular, the gape receding far back and very wide; culmen curved, flattened 
at the base, the tip hooked. Nostrils exposed. Wings very long and pointed. The humerus 
and ulna very short ; the 1st quill the longest ; the inner very short, imparting a sickle-shape to 
the wing. Tail short, even or rounded at the tip ; the shafts rigid, very acute, and projecting 
some distance from the web. Tarsus short, stout, feathered just below the knee, and the rest 
covered with a naked skin. The three front toes nearly equal, the hallux directed backwaid but 
reversible to the front ; claws stout, deep, and much curved. 
CHiETUR A GIGANTEA. 
(THE BROWN-NECKED SPINE-TAIL.) 
Cypselus giganteus (V. Hasselt), Temm. PL Col. 364 (1825). 
Acanthylis caudacuta, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 84 (1849) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. 
p. 118 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 170. 
Acanthylis gigantea , Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 172 (1862) ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 419 ; 
Ball, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 55 ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 280 ; Tweeddale, Blyth, B. Burmah, 
ext. no. 1875, p. 84. no. 183. 
Chcetura gigantea , Sclater, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 608. 
Clicetura indica, Hume, Str. Feath, 187o, p. 471, et 18/6, p. 286. 
Hirundinapus giganteus , Walden, Ibis, 1874, p. 131. 
The Needle-tailed Swallow , Lath. Gen. Synopsis ; The Spiny-tailed Swift, Kelaart. 
Washwlaniya, Sinhalese. 
Adult (from three Ceylonese specimens). Total length, estimated from skins, 9-5 inches ; wing 7-8 to 7'95, reaching 
1-5 beyond tail when closed ; tail 2-7 to 2-9, bare shafts of central feathers 035 to O' 4 ; tarsus 0-65 to 0'7 ; middle 
toe 0'5, its claw (straight) 0'35 ; bill to gape l'O. 
Iris brown ; bill blackish or dark brown ; legs and feet livid brown or fleshy purple, claws blackish brown. 
Head, back and sides of neck, upper part of back, anterior scapular feathers, wings, sides of rump, and upper tail-coverts 
shining green-black, glossed on the wing-coverts, secondaries, and sides of rump more or less with blue ; back 
