The distinguishing characters of this species are its white rump
and forked tail. The general colour is blueish-black, the wings and
tail glossy brown, as also is the head, the forehead being still paler:
throat white. Total length, 8'75 inches ; wing, 57; tail, 8'0.
Fig. Temm. PI. Col. 460, fig. 1.
8 9 . C ypselus a f f in is . White-rumped Swift.
This is a well-known Indian species, and is found in North-Eastern
and in Western Africa, being very plentiful on the Gold Coast, but
it is only recently that it has been discovered in South Africa. Mr.
Dresser in his account of the species mentions that it has “ occurred
as far south as the Cape of Good Hope, according to Dr. Sclater and
Dr. Finscli,” but he does not appear to have seen a specimen. One
is, however, duly recorded in the editor’s ‘ Catalogue of Birds’ (p. 2)
on our authority, and is to be seen in the British Museum. This
specimen was procured by our excellent correspondent, Mr. H.
Jackson, of Nel’s Poort, to whom the credit of the rediscovery of
this species in South Africa is due. He wrote to us saying that he
bad found an apparently new species of Swift, differing from C.
caff or in their breeding habits and making their own nests in clusters,
fixed to the rocks and composed of feathers agglutinated together.
Of course a proceeding so different to the ordinary habits of G.
caffer convinced us that it could not be that species, and the receipt
of specimens proved it to be G. affinis.
The present bird may be described as similar to G. caffer and
possessing a white rump like that species, but distinguishable at
once by its square tail. Total length, 4'5 inches; wing, 5'0; tail, 1'8.
Fig. Dresser, B. Eur. part xxxiii.
90. C ypselus parvus. Little African Swift.
Gotyle ambrosiacea, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 59.
This little Swift is found all over Africa, being especially plentiful
on the Gold Coast: the specimens which we have seen from S.
Africa were much lighter in colour than those from other localities.
It may be distinguished from the other South African Swifts by its
small size and long, forked, tail. We have never seen it from the
Colony, but it was found to be “ pretty common at Ondonga” by
Mr. Andersson, and has been sent from Angola by Senor Purtado
d’Antas.
Mr. Andersson writes :—“ At the end of February these Swifts
appeared to be nesting, as they were seen in pairs and a male and
female were both shot with feathers in their bills. The flight'of this
species is generally lofty.”
The small size of the bird will tell it at a glance, the length of
wing being under 5 | inches, whereas 0. pallidms, the only other
South African Swift with which it could be confounded has the wing
6’8 inches. The general colour is greyish brown, the head and
wings rather darker; throat whitish; tail very much forked and
the outer feather elongated. According to Mr. Andersson the “ iris
is dark brown, the legs and feet brown, the bill black.”
Fig. Temm. PI. Col. 460, fig. 2.
91. Cypselus melba. White-bellied Swift.
Cypselus gutturalis, Gurney in Anderss. B. Dam. Ld. p. 46.
A.s with C. apus, the South African White-bellied Swifts have been
supposed by Canon Tristram to belong to another species and referred
to G. gutturalis of "Vieillot. The differences proposed, however, do
not hold good in our opinion, and in this Mr. Dresser also concurs
(B. Eur. part xxxi). It can, indeed, scarcely be doubted that the
specimens seen in South Africa, only at the time when the species is
absent from Europe, are emigrants from the latter continent. We
must, however, add one peculiarity respecting the South African
birds, and that is, that we never heard them utter' any sound,
whereas during a visit to Switzerland, in the summer of 1871 we
were astonished to hear the stridulous cry uttered by the birds while
circling around the cathedral of Berne. Can it be, therefore, that
the note is only uttered during the nesting season, as the bird does
not breed with us, as far as we know ? Le Maillant, indeed, says
that it breeds in rocks, but we have never heard of their nests beino-
found, though we have seen them flying into crevices of the rocky
sides of Table Mountain. We have also watched several pairs flying
in and out of the rocky face of the “ Ravine” at Simon’s Town
but had no means of ascertaining if the birds were in a breeding
state, and the crevices were perfectly inaccessible.
The great Alpine Swift is very abundant about Cape Town, where