CAVE SWALLOW. 65 



common at all seasons. It delights in the neigh- 

 bourhood of caverns and overhanging rocks, in the 

 hollows of which it builds its ingenious nest. About 

 a mile from Bluefields, the sea washes a precipitous 

 rock of no great height, on the summit of which is 

 an old fort, with some great guns, which tradition 

 ascribes to the old Spanish settlers, but now dis- 

 mantled, and within and without overrun with 

 spiny pinguins and logwood bushes, and tangled 

 with creepers. I have no doubt that this was the 

 site of the Spanish town Oristana, some remains 

 of the houses of which may yet be seen in 

 the provision ground of a negro peasant adjoining. 

 The foot of the cliff is girt with irregular masses of 

 honey-combed rock, between which the incoming 

 tide rolls, and frets, and boils, in foaming confusion ; 

 and the front is hollowed into caves, some of which 

 are long passages with an opening at each end, and 

 others are merely wide-mouthed, but shallow hol- 

 lows. In one of these I counted forty nests of this 

 species of Swallow, each consisting of a half cup, 

 built with little pellets of mud, retaining, in so damp 

 a situation, and where the rock itself is covered with 

 a slimy mouldiness, — their original humidity. Each 

 was thickly lined with silk-cotton. If we imagine 

 a pint basin divided perpendicularly through the 

 middle, and the one-half stuck against a wall, we 

 shall perceive the form of these nests ; some, how- 

 ever, were both larger and deeper than this. In 

 many instances advantage was taken of a slight hol- 

 low in the rock, which increased the capacity. In 

 one, (it was about the middle of July,) I found three 



