Miscellaneous. 503 



from the late Mr. Griffiths ; Hongkong plants from Capt. Champion; 

 South European ones from Mr. Bentham ; and others from various 

 parts of the globe ; the whole forming an extensive and well-authen- 

 ticated Herbarium, such as is seldom offered for sale to the botanical 

 world. Mr. Samuel Stevens, 24 Bloomsbury Street, London, is 

 charged with the disposal of this, and further particulars may be ob- 

 tamed on inquiring of him. 



The Books, almost exclusively botanical, and a few unarranged 

 bundles of duplicate plants, will be sold by public auction, at Mr. Ste- 

 vens's Room, King Street, Covent Garden, and full particulars will 

 be annoimced previous to the sale. 



Visit to the Cave of the Edible Bird's Nest, 1850 ; — Extract from 

 Mr. Edgar Layard's Journal. 



" From Rattmaley to Helllsay is a distance of sixteen miles to the 

 Chinaman's house, to find which we procured guides from Hellisay. 

 The by-path turns off to the left before the traveller arrives at the 

 village of Hellisay, and winds up the side of the hill, in which is the 

 cavern. It is situated about 500 feet up the hill, called by the na- 

 tives Diagallagoolawa or Himumooloocota (illegibly written); after 

 scrambling over stones and fallen trees we came upon the cave, a huge 

 mass of rock, which has slipped from its position, and rests against 

 some boulders below its original site, forming a hollow triangle in 

 section. The cave is about 50 feet long by 25 broad and 20 high ; 

 there are three entrances, one at each end, and a smaller one near the 

 centre. The floor consists of large boulders, covered to the depth of 

 2 or 3 inches with the droppings of the birds and bits of stick and 

 other matter brought in by them with which to fabricate their nests. 

 I captured two young birds on the nest {one nearly full fledged); the 

 parent bird escaped me in the darkness. As soon as my eyes got 

 accustomed to the dim hght, I could discover on the surface of the 

 fallen rock several hundred nests, glistening like flakes of ice ; from a 

 small ledge within reach I got down several, but none of the first 

 quality. My opinion is, that it was too late in the season for good 

 nests ; the old Chinese, with whom I conversed in September last, 

 told me one of the ' harvests ' was in October, and this was con- 

 firmed to my satisfaction by my finding two young birds in separate 

 nests, one of which on being handled was fledged enough to escape. 

 The nests I gathered were evidently of an inferior quality, and had 

 been on that account left by the Chinese for the rearing of the young 

 birds. They were composed of dry grasses, mosses, hair of cattle, 

 agglutinated together and fastened to the rock, and Uned with the 

 saliva of the birds. This substance appears to be laid on most irre- 

 gularly and in unequal masses ; in one nest now before me the foun- 

 dation is in thick patches, clean and semidiaphanous ; the interior is 

 lined with thin threads of it, crossing and recrossing each other in 

 every direction ; the ends of the materials added to it are all drawn 

 together to the two upper corners of the nest, spread out ividely in 

 the middle, thus forming a semicircular shallow cup. Where fastened 

 to the flat surface of the rock, and particidarly at the angles, the nest 



