336 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



trace of the peculiar petal-like appendages to the glands which 

 Home has represented. 



Moreover, this author remarks : — " The present provision for 

 forming a nest out of its own secretions, in an animal of so high 

 a grade as the class Aves, strikes us with astonishment, since 

 birds in all other countries find substances of some kind or other 

 out of which they form their nests, and makes it evident that this 

 particular bii'd, at the time of its first creation, was intended to 

 inhabit tlie caverns of Java, in which nothing is to be met with 

 out of which a nest could be constructed," &c. As if the bird 

 never passed out of the cavern ! While other Cypselidce inhabit- 

 ing the same caverns do employ other substances : again, 

 intended to inhabit caverns might be advantageously substituted 

 for " the caverns of Java " exclusively, albeit the group may be 

 confined in its range to S.E. A.sia and its islands. 



Addendum. — Edible nests in Ceylon. A most obliging corre- 

 spondent in Ceylon, Mr. E. L. Layard, informs us that he has 

 learned of a habitat for Collocalia in that island, " on the banks 

 of a river, thirty miles from the sea, in some caves of a high 

 mountain. A Chinaman rents them from Government, and pays 

 £-10 for a period of seven years. This man says there are two 

 kinds, but does not know much about them ; I will, if possible, 

 visit the spot during the ' take,' which comes on four times a year, 

 October being the forthcoming. This quadruple harvest would 

 seem to imply that they do not migrate, as all our other species 

 [of Swift and Swallow] assuredly* do." 



Our friend, Capt. Lewis, who saw much of these birds in the 

 Nicobars, having ojiportunely returned to Calcutta after a long 

 absence, we had an opportunity of submitting the accompanying 

 notice of them to his criticism ; and he states positively that he 

 observed but one species in those islands, the C . fuciphaga, of 

 which he preserved numerous specimens, both adults and young 

 from tlie nests, and remarks that they laid two or three white 

 eggs, commonly the latter number, but he thinks he once 

 observed as many as four. The number may, in fact, vary 

 according to season (Capt. Lewis observing them in the cold 

 weather). He remarks that the gatherers of the nests are much 

 given to mislead enquirers who interrogate them on the subject, 

 which may account for the published statements that C.fuciphaga 



