AstonisJiing Fecundity of Ilirundo Esculenta. 237 



on the contrary, arc compelled to climb up to a yet greater 

 elevation among tlie precipices and rocks, ere they are able 

 to reach the openings that lead to the various hollows. 



Wliile the birds are breeding, or if they have their young, 

 which happens four times each year, one half remain in the 

 cavities, and both males and females take their turns in sit- 

 ting to brood, every six hours. Each nest is inhabited by 

 a pair of swallows, so that if 1000 nests are found in a cave, 

 they are inhabited by 2000 grown swallows (half male, 

 half female). The fecundity of this bird is so great, that, 

 although the nests are gathered four times a-year, and that 

 somewhere about a million of their progeny is at each pluck- 

 ing wasted or destroyed by the collectors, they never seem 

 to diminish. The six caves at Bandong give yearly about 

 14,000 nests, that at Karangbolong about 500,000 : one 

 hundred nests weigh about one catty (IJ lb.), and one hun- 

 dred catties (125 lbs.) make one picid.^ For each picul of 

 these nests, which they look upon as a special delicacy, the 

 Chinese pay from 4000 to 5000 guilders (£350 to £420). 

 The nest-gatherers are apparently a special class, whose oc- 

 cupation is handed do^ia from father to son. 



Close to the village of Tjisokan, a very elegant wooden 

 bridge, constructed on the American system, but entii'ely erected 



honour of a female, corresponding to our " Madame : " — Ratu, Queen : — Serjoro, 

 ocean : — Kkhd, south : — Lero, maiden •.^Djunfjyrang is a surname.) Compare 

 " Java, its physical Features, Vegetation, and internal Structure," by Franz Junghuhn. 

 Leipsig, Arnold, 1842. 



* The picul varies in weight between 125 and 133| pounds. 



