321. CHÆTURA CELEBENSIS (Sclater).
CELEBES SPINE-TAILED SWIFT.
- Chætura gigantea var. celebensis Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1865), 608.
- Chætura celebensis Hartert, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1892), 16, 467; Meyer and Wiglesworth, Bds. Celebes (1898), 1, 329, pl. 12; Sharpe, Hand-List (1900), 2, 91; Clarke, Ibis (1894), 533; Mearns, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. (1905), 18, 185; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 59.
Basilan (Mearns); Negros (Keay). Celebes.
Adult.—“Deep steel-blue, back and rump with purple gloss; two white spots on the sides of the forehead; sides of the abdomen and under tail-coverts white. In size similar to C. gigantea.” (Hartert.)
Clarke gives the following notes on a specimen obtained in Negros: “The back is an admixture of dark brown, or brownish black, and deep steel-blue, each feather having a broad subterminal band of blue with an edging of dark brown, which conceals the blue to a considerable extent, so that the brown predominates. The tail and secondaries are glossed with green and blue in about equal proportions. Length, 241; wing, 216; tail, 73; tarsus, 18.”
“Female.—A specimen in the Sarasin Collection marked ‘♀ juv.’ (but we can not see any signs of immaturity) answers to Mr. Hartert’s description of the species, except that the lores are reddish brown not white. Wing, 208; tail, 63; tarsus, 16; bill from nostril, 6.” (Meyer and Wiglesworth.)
Mearns gives the following measurements of two males from Basilan: “Length, 240, 255; wing, 215; tail, 75; bill from frontal feathers (chord), 8.5, 9.6; bill from anterior margin of nostril, 6.1, 7.1; tarsus, 19, 20; middle toe with claw, 22.5.”
But six specimens of this large swift are known, three from Celebes, one from Negros, and two from Basilan.