THREE UNPUBLISHED PAPERS BY BLYTH. 319 



irides and white-tipped tail, has any protot,ype in nature ; the 

 latter would be an anomaly throughout the Cypselidce, but may 

 refer perhaps to the white tail-mai"kings of some real Hirundo, 

 erroneously supposed to be the constructor of the edible nests* 

 Dr. Horsfield gives the species termed Lawet by the Javanese as 

 Hirundo escidenta, Osbeck, stating that the specimens which he 

 examined in -Java, and those which he took to England, differ 

 from Latham's description in being uniformly of a blackish colour, 

 without a white extremity to the rectrices. Another species, the 

 Linchi of the Javanese, he gives as H. fuciphaga, Thunberg 

 stating that " Its nest is constructed of mosses and lichens, con- 

 nected with the same gelatinous substance which composes the 

 edible nest of the preceding species."! This accords with what 

 has been already cited from Eafl9.es ; and in an interesting 

 account of Karang Bolong, on the southern coast of Java, and of 

 the birds' nest rocks there, translated from the ' Tijdschrift voor 

 Neerlands India ' in the ' Journal of the Indian Archipelago,' i, 

 107 (Sept., 1847), the same two species are distinguished by the 

 names Lawet and Lintye, and the nest of the latter is described 

 to be " without the least value. The residence of these Swallows 

 (Swiftlets), termed Lintye in the caves," it is added, "contributes 

 greatly to the injury of the holes, for which reason they are 

 destro)'ed as much as possible at each gathering. The nests 

 which they make are constructed of grass-stalks ; they are, how- 

 ever, of the same form, and are as artfully made as the others." 



Mynheer Hooyman likewise states, that besides the Lawet 

 (Waled or Boerong I Daija of the hill Javanese), " other species 

 resort to the same caverns, which are named Momomo, Boerong 

 itam,§ Boerong zoekoet, and Lintje. These," he adds, " are very 

 similar to each other, excepting the second, which has the head 

 larger, and the feathers of all are entirely black. The nests 

 which they contruct are black and friable, composed of a light 



* I find, indeed, that M. Montbeillard describes it to have twelve tail- 

 feathers, which bears out the above idea that it may be a true Hirundo, and 

 shows that it cannot be a Swift. It was on the drawings by M. Poivre that 

 the Cucidus sinensis and C. 2)aradiseus, Linn., were founded, the one repre- 

 senting a Corvidous bird (Psilorhinus) and the other a Drongo {Edolius), 

 each represented with a reversed oiiter toe ! 



t Linn. Tr. xiii. 143. 



I Burong, i.e., bird. 



§ Literally, Black-bii'd. 



