88 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



birds' nests of which soup is made to gladden the hearts 

 of such Chinese bigwigs as can afford to pay about its 

 weight in silver for the raw material are the product of 

 certain birds of this family who rely for their procreant 

 cradles simply on unlimited expectoration ; those which 

 adulterate their secretion with feathers and other extra- 

 neous substances producing a far less marketable article. 

 The eggs of this Swift, like those of its family, generally, 

 are long and white, and few in number, only two to four 

 being laid ; the young are nasty, naked, pink little things, 

 at first blind, with their little helpless wings no bigger 

 than their legs ; then, as the feathers sprout, the wings 

 predominate by degrees, till in the full-grown bird the puny 

 legs only serve to carry the strong grappling claws which 

 the bird needs for scrambling about and hanging on in 

 its confined nesting and roosting quarters. The toes 

 are not placed three in front and one behind, as in 

 most birds, but spread out anyhow like the "fingers" 

 of a starfish, and they grip very closely. On one occa- 

 sion I picked up in the Museum two birds, presumably 

 rival males, so tightly clenched by their feet that they 

 did not separate even when taken in hand. The Swift 

 seems, as might be expected with such feet, not to 

 be able to walk like other birds, but only to crawl in 

 a shuffling flat-footed fashion like a nestling, with the 

 hocks touching the ground ; and I had to catch one 

 and tie its wings to find this out, for if you place a 

 Swift on the ground he wastes no time in pedestrianism 

 on his own account, but jerks himself into the air at once 

 if he can, for both this species and the home Swift have 



