CHAPTER XII. 



Swallows' Nests continued. Edible Nests, East Indies. Goat-suckers. 

 Mode of seizing Moths. Cavern with their Nests described. 

 Tenuirostres, Narrow- billed. Nuthatch. Tree-creeper. Bee-eater. 

 Hoopoe. Kingfisher. Humming Birds. Climbing Birds. Cunei- 

 rostres, Wedge-billed. Jacamar. Anis. Cuckoo, Anecdotes and 

 Habits of. 



SWALLOWS' nests, as we know, are in this country invariably 

 made of mud externally; but in America, an intelligent 

 traveller, Sir Francis Head, informs us, that he met with those 

 of the common species, building in hollow trees ; the place he 

 observed them in being beyond the dwellings of man and the 

 accommodation of houses and walls ; and that they formed their 

 nests of the minute fibres of roots, strongly cemented together 

 so as to make a compact vessel, as tight as a china cup. 



But the nest most worthy of notice is that of a small 

 Swallow, met with in the East Indies. The species by whose 

 labours these nests are formed is about the size of the common 

 Martin. Its chief peculiarity consists in having the width of 

 its bill increased by a naked piece of skin, something like 

 parchment, which, when the bill is shut, lies folded together, 

 but which, when open, is considerably extended, enabling the 

 bird to catch with greater ease, while on the wing, the insects 

 that serve it for food. They are exceedingly light and tender ; 

 ten of them together weighing little more than two ounces and 

 a half. There are two places in particular, near Batavia, where 

 they are found in great numbers, both in a range of high 

 land extending towards the sea; There are, indeed, other 

 places in the same district, or at a greater distance from the 

 coast, which either produce a few, or are carefully concealed by 

 the Javanese, who are unwilling that others should interfere 



