568 The Roller-like Birds 



and its subspecies of the Pacific and Indian islands, the Malay Archipelago, 

 the Andaman and Nicobar islands, etc. These are nearly pure white where 

 attached to the walls of the cave. The nests of a Javanese Swiftlet (C.fuciphaga), 

 a very widely distributed species, are also edible and furnish a large part of the 

 supply of commerce. 



The caverns in which the Swiftlets nest are often of vast size and are resorted 

 to by countless thousands of birds. The following interesting account of a 

 visit to Simud Putih or White Cave of northern Borneo is given by Mr. H. Prior, 

 who observed them about twenty years ago. The species is that last mentioned. 

 " The entrance is about forty feet high, by sixty feet wide, and descends very 

 steeply, widening out to great size and having a perpendicular unexplored abyss 

 at its farthest point. ... At a quarter of six (P.M.) the Swifts began to come 

 into Simud Putih; a few had been flying in and out all day, but now they began 

 to pour in, at first in tens and then in hundreds, until the sound of their wings 

 was like a strong gale whistling through the rigging of a ship. They continued 

 to fly in until after midnight, as I could still see them flashing by over my head 

 when I went to sleep. As long as it remained light I found it impossible to 

 catch any with my butterfly net, but after dark it was only necessary to wave 

 the net in the air to secure as many as I wanted. Nevertheless, they must un- 

 doubtedly possess wonderful powers of sight to fly about in the dark in the darkest 

 recesses of their caves, and to return to their nests, often built in places where 

 no light ever penetrates. 



" In this cave I saw the nest gatherers at work getting in their crop. A thin 

 rattan ladder was fixed to the end of a long pole and wedged against the rock; 

 two men were on the ladder, one carried a long, four-pronged spear, a lighted 

 candle being fixed to it a few inches below the prongs. A slight twist detaches 

 the nest unbroken from the rock; the spear is then withdrawn until the head is 

 within reach of the second man, who takes the nest off the prongs and places it 

 in a pouch carried at the waist. The nests of best quality are bound up into 

 packets with strips of rattan, the inferior being simply threaded together; the 

 best packets generally weigh one catty (i^ lb.), averaging forty nests, and are 

 sold at $9 each, the annual value of the nests gathered being $25,000. These 

 caves have been worked for seven generations without any diminution in the 

 quantity; three crops are taken during the year. 



"The white nests are supplied entirely by the inspissated saliva of the bird, 

 and are the first produced. These are taken and sold for their weight in silver. 

 The next made by the birds are mixed with rootlets, grass, etc., and often show 

 traces of blood, from the efforts of the birds to produce the saliva. They are 

 esteemed second quality. The third nest is composed of extraneous substances 

 cemented together and to the rock with a little saliva; these are generally left 

 for the bird to breed in, and are usually destroyed at the end of the season, to 

 compel the birds to build fresh white ones." 



Dr. W. L. Abbott visited some small caves on Little Nicobar Island which 

 were resorted to by the Linchi Swiftlet (C. linchi affinis}. "The longest cave," 

 he says, " was sixty feet long by five feet broad and seven to ten feet high. The 



