. An illustrated manual of British birds. Birds. 266 NEEDLE-TAILED SWIFT. the Amur River, as well as about Lake Hanka, near Vladivostok, on the Sea of Japan. It is also met with in Mongolia, Manchuria, and the mountains of the Chinese Empire ; while in the cold season it migrates as far as Eastern Australia and Tasmania. It is said to return to its breeding-quarters about the end of April or early in May; departing for the south in August and September; and Prjevalsky has described its bands as passing over-head in an almost incessant stream at the time of the autumn migration in Mongolia. In
. An illustrated manual of British birds. Birds. 266 NEEDLE-TAILED SWIFT. the Amur River, as well as about Lake Hanka, near Vladivostok, on the Sea of Japan. It is also met with in Mongolia, Manchuria, and the mountains of the Chinese Empire ; while in the cold season it migrates as far as Eastern Australia and Tasmania. It is said to return to its breeding-quarters about the end of April or early in May; departing for the south in August and September; and Prjevalsky has described its bands as passing over-head in an almost incessant stream at the time of the autumn migration in Mongolia. In the Himalayas and Assam the representative species is A. nudipes. Several pairs are stated by the above-mentioned Russian explorer to breed in close proximity, the nests being placed in cliffs, or in hollow trees; the eggs are probably white. The food consists of insects; the note is described as feeble; while all observers agree in eulogizing the unrivalled vigour of the bird's flight. Gould remarks that the keel of the breast in this species is more than ordinarily deep, and that the pectoral muscles are more developed than in any bird of the same weight with which he was acquainted. The adult has the forehead dull white ; crown, nape and sides of the head dusky black, with a greenish gloss ; back dusky brown, paler in the middle; wing-coverts and secondaries bottle-green; inner secondaries chiefly white on the inner webs ; primaries blackish; tail-feathers bottle-green, with projecting spinous shafts; throat, breast and under tail-coverts white; belly sooty-brown ; lower flanks white, mixed with glossy blue-black ; bill black; legs and feet dark brown, with one claw directed backwards : in which respect birds of this genus differ from the true Swifts. Length 8 in.; wing 8'i in. The vignette below represents the head and left foot of the Night- jar, the next Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced fo
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsaun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds
