GREY-RUIVIPED SWIFTLET. 
about in the cave, though there were none in the nests, the eggs were in successive 
stages of incubation. The architecture of the nests, the way in which they 
were attached to the roof, and the attitude of the birds clinging to and brooding 
over them, resembled the picture in Richard Kerr’s book — Nature, Curious 
and Beautiful — of the Swifts {Collocalia) which build the edible nests, which 
picture reproduces an exliibit in the Natural History Museum, London. True, 
the shape of the nest does not exactly correspond, though the scoop-like general 
appearance is preserved. The cave, which is invisible from the sea, is only 
about 30 feet above highwater mark, and the entrance which the birds favour 
is, strange to say, averse from the sea and much obscured by leafage. Altogether 
the incidents connected with this experience were very pleasant.” 
Later, Campbell apparently visited this colony himself, as in the Emu, 
Vol. XV., p. 253, 1916, he wrote : “ Another indelible memory was a scene I 
witnessed only last year, when, with a genial companion, I visited a Swiftlet cave 
on a verdure-clad islet.” In this note nothing new was added and no name 
or locality was given. In Vol. XVII. of the Emu, p. 18, 1917, Campbell and 
Barnard recorded Collocalia francica from the Cardwell district “ seen hawking 
in numbers over the tree- tops both on the mainland and on Goold Island. There 
is no doubt that these fairy-like little creatures nest on several of the islands 
of the coast, and probably in recesses of the mainland mountains,” adding : 
“ A description of a visit by me is given in the Emu, Vol. XV., p. 253. I was 
under the guidance of our member, Mr. E. J. Banfield, of Dunk Island. 
A. J. C.” 
In the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, Vol. XVI., 1892, Hartert 
lumped, though admitting that such action was conservative and carefully 
explaining the differences he observed among the specimens, writing as follows 
(p. 504): “This species has an enormous distribution, and forms several local 
races like its congener C. fuciphaga. The large birds from the Mergui Archipelago 
cannot be mistaken and may safely be regarded as a species, C. innominata, 
of Hume. The birds from Fiji, Samoa, Friendly Islands, Solomon Islands 
and Ternate are very dark and the back has very little gloss. The colour of 
the back in specimens from Australia (i.e., C. terrceregince of Ramsay) is a 
little paler, but those from Mauritius and Bourbon are perfectly similar. 
Specimens from Mergui are paler beneath, and the feathers of the lower surface 
and of the light grey band across the rump have more obvious dark shaft-stripes. 
The specimens from South Andaman and Selangore (Klang) in the Malay 
Peninsula have the light band across the rump, which is dusky whitish or pale 
dusky grey in the typical forms, ill-defined, often so faint that they nearly 
approach C. fuciphaga. Most of the forms are so alike, and their geographical 
distribution is so wide and curious, that very few races can be kept separate. 
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