ISO Account of the Javanefe Swallow, 



and pierced witrr a great number of openings. Many of 

 thefe openings are fo wide, that a perfon can enter them 

 with eafe; others are attended with more difficulty; and fome 

 of them are fo fmall, that nature evidently feems to have been 

 defirous of providing for the fecurity of thefe little animals. 

 On the outfide thefe rocks are covered with a multitude of 

 ftrong tall trees of various kinds. The infide confifts of grey 

 calcareous ftone and white marble. To the walls of thefe 

 caverns the birds affix their fmall nefis in horizontal rows, 

 and fo clofe that they for the moft part adhere together. 

 They conftruct them at different heights from 50 to 300 

 feet ; fometimes higher or lower, according as they find 

 room ; and no hole or convenient place, if dry and clean, is 

 left unoccupied; but if the walls be in the leaft wet Or moift 

 they immediately defert them. 



At day-break thefe birds fly abroad from their holes with 

 a loud fluttering noife, and in the dry feafons rife fo high 

 into the atmofphere in a moment, as they rauft feek their 

 food in diftant parts, that they are foon out of fight. In the 

 rainy feafon, on the other hand, they never remove to a great 

 diftance from their holes, as has been often remarked, parti- 

 cularly in the government of Java, where there are fome 

 rocks fituated very clofe to the fhore. About four in the 

 afternoon they again return, and confine themfelvcs fo 

 clofely to their holes, that none of them are feen any 

 more flying either out or in, but thofe which are hatch- 

 ing. 



They feed upon all forts of infetls which hover over the 

 ftagnated water ; and thefe they eafily catch, as they can ex- 

 tend their bills to a great width. Their moft deftructive 

 enemy is a kind of hawk {knikendief) , which feizes many of 

 them as they iflue from their holes ; and which people, on 

 that account, take great care to frighten away by fhooting 

 at them. 



They prepare their nefts from the ftrongeft remains of 

 the food which they ufe> and not of the fcum of the fea ov 



of 



