rainy season, but in India generally is replaced by the allied
Cypselus affinis. It has been observed in Persia, and is
common in Asia Minor and Palestine. It seems not to have
been determined from Egypt until Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun. obtained
a specimen there in 1875, and its asserted appearance
in the rest of North-Eastern Africa is questionable, since
C. pallidus, a form long confounded with it, has perhaps
been mistaken for it, but otherwise it ranges, so far as
may be inferred, over the whole of that continent, even to
the Cape of Good Hope, where it is extremely abundant from
towards the end of the year till May. It is not known to
occur in the Atlantic islands, but in those of the Mediterranean,
as well as throughout every country of Europe, it is
a well-known summer-visitor.
The bill is black: irides dark brown : the whole plumage,
except a small greyish-white patch under the chin, nearly
uniform blackish-brown, glossy above : toes and claws black.
There is no external difference between the sexes.
The whole length is nearly seven inches and a half. From
the carpal joint to the tip of the wing, which reaches an inch
and a quarter beyond that of the tail, six inches and five-
eighths.
Young birds have the chin of a purer white, and most of
the feathers on the upper surface tipped with buffy-white.
The middle figure of the vignette represents the sternal
apparatus of the Swift, which will be seen at a glance to
differ most essentially from that of any Passerine bird, in
the form of the coracoids and furcula, and in the absence of
the forked manubrium or anterior process of the keel, as
well as in the absence of the posterior notches of the sternum.
The peculiar structure of the foot is also exhibited by the
two lateral figures, one shewing that limb with the four toes
directed forwards in their ordinary position, and the other
the several bones composing it divested of their integuments.
It will be observed in this figure that the digital
phalanges instead of following the usual arithmetical series
among birds generally—2, 3, 4, 5, are 2, 3, 3, 3—one
phalanx being absent in the third digit and two phalanges
wanting in the fourth. This structure is found in the genus
Cypselus and its ally Panyptila (an American form) but not,
so far as is known, in other genera of Cypselidce.*
* An example of the “ Needle-tailed Swallow” of Latham (Synops. Suppl. ii.
p. 259), a species belonging to the genus Acanthyllis or Chcetura of modern
ornithologists and to the family Cypselidce, was shot at Great Horkesley near
Colchester, July 8th, 1846, having been seen there two days before; and, while
yet fresh, was examined by Newman, Doubleday, Mr. Fisher and the Author of
this work (Zool. p. 1492). Mr. Yarrell, however, did not think fit to mention
it in his last edition, doubtless regarding it as a straggler from Australia.
While the present sheet was under revision the occurrence of a second example
in England became known to the Editor. This was killed July 26th or 27th,
1879, near Ringwood, having been a few days before seen flying with a companion
over the river Avon hy Mr; Corbin, who kindly allowed the specimen to
be exhibited to the Zoological Society, January 6th, 1880. The species is not
known to have been noticed in Western Asia or elsewhere in Europe ; yet, when
its wide range and great power of flight is considered, its appearance here need
not excite surprise. Though first made known in 1802, from a specimen obtained
in New South Wales) to which country and to Tasmania Acanthyllis or Chcetura
caudacuta annually migrates), it was procured by Steller many years before near
Irkutsk, and was observed in Dauuria by Pallas, who, not recognizing its identity
with Latham’s species, redescribed it (Zoogr. R.-As. i. p. 541) under the name
of Hirundo cvris. I t has since been recorded from Amoorland and China, as
well as Nepaul, Sikim and Bhotan, for it is identical with the C. nudipes of Mr.
Hodgson; and it is said to breed in the Himalayas, as it doubtless does in
Eastern Siberia. The genus can be easily distinguished by the structure of the
tail, in which the shaft , of each feather protrudes beyond the web as a sharp
spine, and by the feet being formed on the ordinary model, and not as in Cypselus.
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