THREE UNPUBLISHED PAPERS BY BLYTH. 317 



at the rate of 1000 to 1500 dollars the picul* (according to the 

 Batav. Trans, for nearly its weight in silver) ; the black is usually 

 disposed of at Batavia at about twenty or thirty dollars for the 

 same weight, where, I understand, it is converted chiefly into 



glue When the natives prepare to take the nests they 



enter the caves with torches, and forming ladders of bamboos, 

 notched according to the usual mode, they ascend and pull down 

 the nests, which adhere in numbers together from the sides and 

 top of the rock. I was informed that the more regularly the cave 

 is thus stripped the greater proportion of white nests they were 

 sure to find, and that on this experience they often make a 

 practice of beating down and destroying the old nests in larger 

 quantities than they trouble themselves to carry away, in order 

 that they may find white nests the next season in their room." 

 According to M. Hooyman the G. nidijica is about two months 

 preparing its nest, and lays two eggs, which are hatched in fifteen 

 or sixteen days ; and of a species, which would appear to be 

 C.fuciphaga, M. Poivre informs us that each of the nests which 

 he observed contained two or three eggs or young ; Sir G. 

 Staunton, of doubtless the same species, asserts that it lays two 

 white eggs. 



The nests of the Callocalice are placed against the sides and 

 roof of deep caverns of chiefly limestone rocks, at distances from 

 the entrance varying from fifty to several hundred feet. Wherever 

 (as we have seen) these caves occur, whether inland or in cliff's 

 overhanging the sea, the birds resort to them alike in jirodigious 

 numbers, building commonly in successive layers, many nests 

 together, but always where the cavern is perfectly dry, for obvious 

 reasons. Every fitting site is usually crowded with the nests. 

 The entrance to the cavern may be large, or so small as barely to 

 admit the birds and their Bat-companions ; and inland the rocks 

 are sometimes clad externally with dense jungle. At break of 

 day the birds issue forth with a great rush, at which time the 

 Kites {Haliastur j^ondicerianus ?) commit much havoc among 

 them (being therefore destroyed by the Javanese and others) ; 

 and in fine dry weather they fly very high, like the rest of the 



* 133^ lbs. avoh-clupois. The current price m China at this time is 

 18 dollars and iipwai-ds per catty of 1 lb. 5^ oz., or f^ picul, i. e., £4 10s. 8d. 

 per lb., reckoning the dollar at 4s. 3^. 



