CHAF. II.] 



SWALLOWS. 



167 



shore, and hover round the returning boats of the fisher- 

 men to feast on the fry rejected from their nets. 



Owls. Of the nocturnal accipitres the most remark- 

 able is the brown owl, which, from its hideous yell, has 

 acquired the name of the " Devil-Bird." l The Singhalese 

 regard it literally with horror, and its scream by night 

 in the vicinity of a village is bewailed as the harbinger of 

 approaching calamity. 



II. PASSERS. Swallows. Within thirty-five miles 

 of Caltura, on the western coast, are inland caves, 

 to which the Esculent Swift 2 resorts, and there builds 

 the "edible bird's nest," so highly prized in China, 

 Near the spot a few Chinese immigrants have esta- 

 blished themselves, who rent the royalty from the 

 government, and make an annual export of their pro- 

 duce. But the Swifts are not confined to this district, 

 and caves containing them have been found far in the 

 interior, a fact that complicates the still unexplained 

 mystery of the composition of their nest ; and notwith- 



1 Syrnium Indranee, Sykes. The 

 horror of this nocturnal scream was 

 equally prevalent in the West as in 

 the East. Ovid introduces it in his 

 Fasti, L. vi. 1. 139 ; and Tibullus in 

 his Elegies, L. i. El. 5. Statins 

 says 



" Nocttirnaeque gomunt striges, et feralia bubo 

 Damnn <;ti en*." Iheb. iii. 1. 511. 



But Pliny, 1. xi. c. 93, doubts as to 

 what bird produced the sound ; and 

 the details of Ovid's description do 

 not apply to an owl. 



Mr. Mitford, of the Ceylon Civil 

 Service, to whom I am indebted for 

 many valuable notes relative to the 

 birds of the island, regards the iden- 

 tification of the Singhalese Devil-Bird 

 as open to similar doubt : he says 

 " The Devil-Bird is not an owl. I 

 never heard it until I came to Korne- 

 galle, where it haunts the rocky hill 

 at the back of Government-House. 

 Its ordinary note is a magnificent clear 

 shout like that of a human being, and 

 which can be heard at a great dis- 



tance, and has a fine effect in the 

 silence of the closing night. It haa 

 another ciy like that of a hen just 

 caught, but the sounds which have 

 earned for it its bad name, and which 

 I have heard but once to perfection, 

 are indescribable, the most appalling 

 that can be imagined, and scarcely to 

 be heard without shuddering ; I can 

 only compare it to a boy in torture, 

 whose screams are being stopped by 

 being strangled. I have offered re- 

 wards for a specimen, but without 

 success. The only European who 

 had seen and fired at one agreed with 

 the natives that it is of the size of a 

 pigeon, with a long tail. I believe 

 it is a Podargus or Night Hawk." 

 In a subsequent note he further says 

 " I have since seen two birds by 

 moonlight, one of the size and shape 

 of a cuckoo, the other a large black 

 bird, which I imagine to be the one 

 which gives these calls." 



- 8 Collocalia brevirostris, McCleH. 

 C. nidifica, Gray. 



M 4 



