THE ESCULENT SWALLOW. 143 



Jiyie, thev have been seen perched in a row on a rail, and so yoimg and helpless as easily 

 to be taken by the hand ; whether the parent-birds feed them when on the wing, as is 

 the case with swallows and martins, is \mdetermined. 



These birds are very sociable in disposition, and colonise the same localities in great 

 numbers. In some neighbomhoods they congregate in such numbers that when 

 disturbed, they fly out of their nests and fill the air like flies, and they swarm in 

 immense multitudes along the banks of the Ohio and Kentucky in the New World. 

 "Wliite tells us that the sand-martin is ferd natura, at least in some parts of this kingdom, 

 disdaining all domestic attachments, and haunts wild heaths and commons ; while the 

 other species are remarkably gentle and domesticated, and never seem to think themselves 

 safe but under the protection of man. 



THE ESCULENT SWALLOW.* 



The esculent swallow, or salangane, is a native of the Eastern Archipelago, and has 

 received its designation from the fact that its nest is regarded as a great delicacy for the 

 table by the Chinese and others of the Asiatics. But while writers in general agree as to 

 the value which the epicui-e sets upon this article of diet, much diversity of opinion prevails 

 as to its nature and history. Some indeed assert that the nests have no ta steat all, 

 while others detect a highly aromatic flavour ; some declare that the nest is composed of 

 the spawn of fish, others of a kind of froth from the sea ; a third class afiirm that it is a 

 species of gum, collected by the birds from a tree which grows in the neighbourhood ; 

 while a fourth maintain that it is the product of a viscous humour, discharged from the 

 bill at the season of reproduction. 



M. Poi\Te, who is declared by Montbeillard to be a very enlightened and accurate 

 traveller, Aisited a little islet called Petit Joque, situated near Java, and having entered a 

 tolerably deep cavern hollowed in the rocks which bordered the sea, he found its sides 

 hung with small nests, which, on being removed, were ascertained to be those of the 

 esculent swallow. He was then informed by the Malays, the Cochin Chinese, and the 

 Indians of the neighboui'ing islands, that the salangane made its nest with fish spawn. 

 This, they asserted, it collected as it swept over the surface of the sea, which they 

 afterwards left to coagulate upon the rocks. They also afiirmed, that at the time of the 

 construction of the nest, threads of this viscous matter were observed to hang from the 

 bills of this bird. The traveller adds, that some of the fish spawn, which he gathered 

 from the sea and dried, he proved to be identical in character to the substance of the nest 

 of the bird. M. Lamouroux observes, that of the three species of nest, the smallest is the 

 most valuable, and that while the others are found inland, this is only to be discovered 

 upon the sea-coast. This nest is clear and white, and is composed of a plant, called by 

 him gelidia, which he succeeded in reducing to a gelatinous substance by boiling or 

 steeping in water. 



The true explanation of the matter appears to be found in a sort of eclecticism of parts 

 of the theories referred to. It is most probable that the sea plants spoken of by 

 Lamouroux are emploj^ed in the construction of the uest, which is cemented together by 

 means of the viscous fluid which, we have seen, is believed to exist in other birds of this 

 family. 



" In the Cuss, a small island near Sumatra," says Sir T. S. Rafiles, " we found two 

 caverns running horizontally into the side of the rock, and in these were a number of 

 these birds'-nests so much prized by the Chinese epicures. They seemed to be composed 

 of fine filaments, cemented together by a transparent viscous matter not unlike what is 



* Hirunclo Esculenta. 



