162 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



European nests are nothing to be compared 

 with those the swallow builds on the coasts 

 of China and Coromandel; the description of 

 which I will give in the plain honest phrase 

 of Willoughby. " On the sea-coast of the 

 kingdom of China," says he, " a sort of party- 

 coloured birds, of the shape of swallows, at a 

 certain season of the year, which is their 

 breeding time, come out of the midland coun- 

 try to the rocks, and from the foam or froth 

 of the sea- water, dashing against the bottom 

 of the rocks, gather a certain clammy glutin- 

 ous matter, perchance the spawn of whales 



the chimney ; the smallest were stuck in the corners of 

 the chimney, forming only a fourth of a cylinder, or al- 

 most an inverted cone. The first nest, which was the 

 lowest, had the same texture at the bottom as at the 

 sides; but the two upper tiers were separated from the 

 lower by their lining only, which consisted of straw, dry 

 herbs, and feathers. Of the small nests, built in the 

 corners, I could find only two in tiers, and I inferred 

 that they were the property of young pairs, as they were 

 nut so compactly built as the larger ones. In habits, in- 

 stincts, appearance, and migration, the Swift resembles 

 the swallow. The common swift is seldom seen in the 

 northern parts of England before the end of May, or the 

 beginning of June; in the south it arrives a week or 

 two earlier. It leaves us again for warmer climates in 

 August, a month or six weeks previous to the departure 

 of the swallows. In this country it haunts cathedrals, 

 towers, churches, and other buildings not constantly in- 

 habited, in the holes, and under the eaves of which it 

 finds a safe retreat, and proper situation to build in. 

 The nest is formed of straw and other suitable materials, 

 which it collects with great dexterity in its flight. It 

 never alights on the ground, as it is unable to rise from 

 a flat surface. 



The Goatsuckers are so named from an absurd notion, 

 that they suck the mamma) of goats, a notion which may 

 perhaps have originated in the enormous depth and aper- 

 ture of the gape. This vulgarism is by no means mo- 

 dern, for it appears, by the Greek appellative, to have 

 existed in the time of Aristotle, though it seems pro- 

 bable, that the first application of the name might have 

 had rather a figurative than a literal meaning. Many of 

 the insectivorous birds, it is true, are found frequently 

 near the persons of cattle and sheep while grazing. for 

 the purpose, doubtless, of preying on the numerous in- 

 sects which feed on the excretions from these animals: 

 but this habit is common to many genera of birds, and 

 gives no reasonable support to the notion in question, 

 which is incompatible with the organization of the whole 

 class. These birds are inhabitants of Europe, and, in- 

 deed, are found in almost all parts of the world ; but 

 they are rare here, and more so in appearance than 

 reality, from their crepusculous habits. It is in the 

 new world, especially South America, that they most 

 abound, and are divisible into many species. Asia, and 

 New Holland, moreover, are not without them. Un- 

 fitted, like the owls, for full day-light, the goatsuckers 

 hide themselves in some obscure retreat. Twilight is 

 their short period of activity, but the rapidity of their 

 flight, and the size of the mouth, enable them to make 

 the most of this limited time in procuring food. They 

 devote no time to nidification, but deposit their eggs in 

 simple concavities on the ground, and thus the time 

 necessary for the two great objects of animal existence, 

 self-support and propagation, are proportioned to the 

 comparative short periods of their activity. In the day, 

 they sometimes utter a plaintive cry, repeated rapidly 

 three or four times, and indicative of the then negative 



and other young fishes, of which they build 

 their nests, wherein they lay their eggs and 

 hatch their young. These nests the Chinese 

 pluck from the rocks, and bring them in great 

 numbers info the East Indies to sell. They 

 are esteemed, by gluttons, as great delicacies; 

 who, dissolving them in chicken or mutton 

 broth, are very fond of them ; far before 

 oysters, mushrooms, or other dainty and 

 liquorish morsels." 1 What a pity this luxury 

 hath not been introduced among us, and then 

 our great feasters might be enabled to eat a 

 little more ' 



character of their desires, for they seem to want nothing 

 but retirement and repose. 



The European Goatsucker is the only species known 

 here. This bird has received a variety of popular 

 names, which have been, many of them, adopted by 

 naturalists; such as flying-toad, square-tailed swallow, 

 night-raven, night-hawk, door-hawk, churn and fern 

 owl, &c. Its food, mode of taking it, and style of 

 flying caused it to receive the name of square-taili'd 

 swallow. 



1 The substance of these nests, according to some, is 

 a sort of froth of the sea, or of the spawn of fish, which 

 is strongly aromatic, though others assert that it has no 

 taste at all ; some pretend that it is a kind of gum, col- 

 lected by the bird on the tree called Calambone ; others, 

 a viscous humour, which they discharge through the 

 bill at the season of reproduction. The commercial 

 history of these singular nests is much better understood 

 than their composition. " The best nests," says Mi- 

 Crawford, "are those obtained in deep, damp caves, and 

 such as are taken before the birds have laid their eggs. 

 The coarsest are those obtained after the young have 

 been fledged. The finest nests are the whitest; that 

 is, those taken before the nest has been rendered im- 

 pure by the food and faeces of the young birds. The 

 best are white, and the inferior dark-coloured, streaked 

 with blood, or intermixed with feathers. It may be 

 remarked, however, that some of the natives describe 

 the purer nests as the dwelling of the cock-bird, and 

 always so designate them in commerce. Birds' nests 

 are collected twice a-year; and, if regularly collected, 

 and no unusual injury be oflered to the caverns, will pro- 

 duce very equally, the quantity being very little, if at 

 all, improved by the caves being left altogether unmo- 

 lested for a year or two. Some of the caverns are ex- 

 tremely difficult of access, and the nests can only be 

 collected by persons accustomed frum their youth to the 

 office. The most remarkable and productive caves in 

 Java, of which I superintended a moiety of the collec- 

 tion for several years, are those of Karang-bolang, in the 

 province of Baglen, on the south coast of the island. 

 There the caves are only to be approached by a per- 

 pendicular descent of many hundred feet, by ladders of 

 bamboo and ratan, over a sea rolling violently against 

 the rocks. When the mouth of the cavern is attained, 

 the perilous office of taking the nests must often be per- 

 formed with torch-light, by penetrating into recesses ot 

 the rock, when the slightest trip would be instantly 

 fatal to the adventurers, who see nothing below them 

 but the turbulent surf making its way into the chasms of 

 the rock. The only preparation which the birds' nests 

 undergo is that of simple drying, without direct exposure 

 to the sun, after which they are packed in small boxes, 

 usually of a picul, (about 135 pounds.) They are 

 assorted for the Chinese market into three kinds, ac- 

 cording to their qualities, distinguished into first or best-, 

 second, and third qualities. Caverns that are regulaily 

 managed will afford, in 100 parts, 53 3-1 Oth parts of 



