358 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AND PRODUCTIOXS. 



nest is brown, and mainly composed of moss agglutinated to the rock by the salivary 

 socretiou. Tliey roost according to Davison at night like a swarm of bees all Imddlcd 

 together, and clinging to the bare boards in a wonderful manner. These nests of 

 course are never collected. 



C. raAxcicA, Gmel. The Andamans. Tcnasserim. 



C. fuciphaga, Horsf. (fide Walden). 



This species no doubt produces an edible nest, but I am unaware if it has been 

 taken in Burma. 



C. spoDioPTGiA, Peale. The Andamams. 



This is the species which affords an edible nest in the Andamans (Little Button 

 Island). Mr. Hume thus describes it: The nest, except just at its junction with 

 the rock (where it is brownish), is composed of the most exquisitely silvery white 

 gelatine, exteriorly the surface is compact and somewhat roughened in laminaj, 

 interiorly it is a network of the finest and whitest threads, reminding one of the 

 Hiipleciiila. The true nest, which is pure white, and in shape rather more than 

 half of a shallow cup, is from 2 to 2f inches broad, stands out from li to nearly 

 2 inches from the wall, and varies interiorly in depth from little more than one- 

 half to a full inch. The attachment films and foundation below the true nest, both 

 of which are somewhat brownish, vary excessively according to the site chosen 

 for the nest ; in some they are almost wanting, in others the film extends for an inch 

 on either side beyond the nest ; and the foundation below the most projecting point 

 of the true nest may be Ij inches in depth. The nests are dotted about in the 

 darkest corners, and as a rule are separate, though occasionally two or even three 

 may be found joined together. 



"The nests of this species i^not linchi) are collected for the Pinang market, and 

 it has not as yet been noticed at the Nicobars, where linchi abounds." — S.F. ii. p. 160. 



C. EotOMiNATA, Hume. The Andamans. Tenasserim. 



Allied to the Nilghiri C. tmicohr, Jerdon, biit twice the weight of that species, 

 besides other differences (S.F. i. p. 294, vi. p. 49.) 



Dendkochelidon coronata, Tickell. Pegu and Martaban. 



This species is rare in Southern Tenasserim, and replaced by B. Hecho on the 

 Malayan Peninsula. 



D. comata, Tem. Tenasserim south of Mergui. 

 D. LONGiPENNis, Eaf. TcDasserim south of Mergui. 



This species Davison thinks ranges a little farther north than the last. 



Order SCANSORES. 



Bill never arched from the base, no core. Tongue not extensile. First and 

 fourth toes turned backwards. In some the bill is small ( Cuculidm), in others as large 

 almost as the rest of the bird [Bhamphastidce). 



Family Cuculidae. 



Many of this family are remarkable for the habit they have of laying their eggs 

 in the nests of other birds, and in such cases we often find that the bird lays an egg 

 similar in character to that of the bird selected by it, as foster-parent for its young. 

 For example, Endynamys orientalis lays Ln the nest of the common Indian crow 

 (C imjmdicus), and its egg is accordingly green and blotched and spotted, something 

 in corvine style. Cocci/stes, too, lays a pure and deep blue egg, identical in colour 

 ■with the eggs of the Malacocerci, whose nests it honours with its choice. On the 

 other hand, we must not build too elaborate conclusions on these seemingly adaptive 

 corelations, as the common cuckoo laj-s a spotted egg wholly unlike those of its 

 most commonly adopted foster-parents, the hedge span-ow, whose egg is of a uniform 

 delicate blue. 



