THE MUSEUM. 



155 



contents, but it is the man who will 

 give the sections of wood the closest 

 attention. If your friend is aged, be 

 considerate of the eyes that have passed 

 their prime, but never allow him to 

 feel that he cannot enjoy the pleasures 

 the others are receiving. 



Put on the stage an object that has 

 both thickness and color, as cystals of 

 bichromate of potassium, or sand — -or 

 a flea — -something that will not be dif- 

 ficult to get a focus that will show sat- 

 isfactory even if it be not the best. 

 Encourage him to remove his glasses 

 and take time to adjust the focus to 

 suit his eye, and the sincere delight 

 which he will show when he finds that 

 he can see as well as the others, will 

 make you patient when the next one 

 declares that it is no use in his trying 

 to see. 



Do not forget the children of the 

 poor — or the very ingorant. A simple 

 thing which I never knew to fail to draw 

 attention is a fine handkerchief placed 

 over the stage — and having caught 

 their interest it is easy to go on, and 

 one can never know but it may be an 

 incentive to some waif to struggle up 

 into greater knowledge and light. 



I believe we may interest people in 

 the microscope — not our own facts, it 

 may be — but in something that shall 

 give them instruction and pleasure, 

 if we will but give it sufficient thought. 



By Miss Ella M. Drury, Boston, 

 Mass., /// Practical Microscopv- 



The EscuJent Swallow. 



At the present time, when the eyes 

 of all nations are turned towards the 

 Orient, anything related to the Chinese 

 people or their customs becomes in- 

 vested with a peculiar interest. So 

 when we read that they regard a pud- 



ding or a soup which is made of a 

 swallow's nest, as the greatest possi- 

 ble delicacy, we are inclined to think 

 that they must have a very perverted 

 taste. And so they have, judging from 

 our point of view, or from the infor- 

 mation we can gain by an examination 

 of the nest of any American species of 

 swallow. But, when we investigate 

 the habits of the peculiar species which 

 builds the nest which they eat and 

 learn the manner of preparation, our 

 wonder diminishes, and those Ameri- 

 cans who have tasted the delicacy in- 

 form us that they are justified in their 

 fondness for it. 



The Esculent Swallow, Hiruiida 

 csculciita, seldom has a representative 

 in the collections of American natura- 

 lists. It is a small bird, scarcely larg- 

 er than a wren, though the spread of 

 its wings, and the length of its tail, 

 gives a much larger appearance. It a- 

 bounds near the coast of many of the 

 islands of the East Indies but more es- 

 pecially of Java. The southeastern 

 coast of this island consists, for upwards 

 of one hundred miles, of a perpendicu- 

 lar precipice several hundred feet high, 

 against which the waves beat with al- 

 most incredible force. Into the face 

 of the precipice, deep caverns and 

 crevices have been worn, and it is here 

 that these birds congregate in immense 

 numbers, not merely as a breeding- 

 place, but as a place of permanent abode. 

 They build their nests in the fissures 

 of the precipices, and in such inaccess- 

 ible places, that, although they are 

 often in plain view, man, with all his 

 skill, and stimulated by an almost 

 fabulous value of the nests, is able to 

 reach but a small percentage of them; 

 not enough to diminish the number of 

 birds in the least. 



