THE ESCULENT SWALLOW. Ill 



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the south. Even when upon the wing, the Swallows and Swifts seem to have nothing in com- 

 mon with each other, but hold, aloof in little parties of the same species. 



The color of the Swift is remarkably sombre, more so, indeed, than that of almost any 

 British bird. The whole of the plumage is a dark sooty-black, devoid of the rich green and 

 purple gloss which is seen upon the rook and other dark-feathered birds, and only relieved 

 from its dull monotony by a gray patch below the chin. The beak is black in color, and very 

 small, but the gape of the mouth is remarkably wide. The legs, toes, and claws are of the 

 same dull black as the beak, and the eyes are brown. The entire length of a full-grown Swift 

 is about seven inches, the end of the wing reaching more than an inch beyond the tip of the 

 tail. The second primary is the longest feather in the wing. 



THE Swifts are embraced under the family Cypselidce. They were formerly classed with 

 the swallows, but are found to have nearer affinities with the goat-suckers. 



THE CHIMNEY SWIFT (Cypselus pelasgica) is a familiar form in the north, where it is 

 called the Chimney Swallow. Its short tail and rounded wings give it the appearance of a 

 bat in flying. Three other species are known to North America in the western and southern 

 portions. , 



THE TRUE SWALLOWS. 



AMONG the many "travellers' tales" which called forth such repudiation and ridicule 

 from the skeptical readers of the earlier voyagers, the accounts of the Chinese cuisine were 

 held to be amongst the most extravagant. 



That civilized beings should condescend to eat dogs and rats specially fattened for the 

 table, was an idea from which their own better sense revolted ; that the same nation should 

 reckon sharks' fins and sea-slugs among their delicacies, was clearly an invention of the 

 writer ; but that the Chinese should make soup out of birds' nests, was an absurdity so self- 

 evident, that it destroyed all possibility of faith in the writers' previous assertions. Very 

 witty remarks were made on the subject, and many jokes made on the manner of cooking a 

 bird's nest, so as to convert it into soup, the humorist having no conception of the possibility 

 that a bird's nest could be made of anything but sticks, moss, feathers, and mud. Yet it is 

 now a well-known fact, that certain birds have the faculty of producing or discovering a curi- 

 ous substance with which they make these very singular nests, and which is perfectly capable 

 of being cooked and eaten. 



The birds that make these remarkable nests belong to several species, four of which have 

 been acknowledged. There are the ESCULENT SWALLOW, the Linchi (Collocalia fuciphaga), 

 the White-backed Swallow (Collocalia troglodytes), and the Gray-backed Swallow (Collocalia 

 francica). 



These nests could hardly be recognized as specimens of bird architecture by any one who 

 had not previously seen them, as they look much more like a set of sponges, corals, or fungi, than 

 nests of birds. They are most irregular in shape, are adherent to each other, and are so rudely 

 made, that the hollow in which the eggs and young are intended to live, is barely perceptible. 

 They are always placed against the face of a perpendicular rock, generally upon the side of 

 one of the tremendous caverns in Java and other places where these strange birds love to 

 dwell. The men who procure the nests are lowered by ropes from above, and their occupation 

 is always considered as perilous in the extreme. 



While adherent to the rocks, or when gathered into baskets, the nests are not at all attract- 

 ive in their aspect, and it is not until they have been carefully washed and cleansed, that they 

 begin to show their semi-fibrous structure, shining through its partially transparent substance. 

 The nests are of very different value, those which have been used in rearing a brood of young 

 being comparatively low in price, while those which are quite new and nearly white, are held 

 in such esteem, that they are worth their weight in silver. When placed in water and allowed 

 to remain in soak, the nests, being made of a partially gelatinous substance, begin to soften 



