THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 159 



of " nidifim" (? innominata, nobis), on which account it is more 

 valued by the Burmese, who collect both kinds for the Chinese 

 and Penang markets. He adds that " this species is generally 

 abundant at Port Blair, especially between Aberdeen and Navy 

 Bay, where every cave is full of their nests." Now in the first 

 place the nests of this species are brown, and mainly composed 

 of moss, and are not, so far as I could learn, ever collected at 

 all. In the second place there are no caves at all between 

 Aberdeen and Navy Bay. 



Mr. Davison has watched these birds making their nests ; they 

 bring a tiny piece of moss, and cling on to the roof ; then for 

 four or five minutes you see the little bird's head going back- 

 wards and forwards, and then off he flies, and you see that the 

 piece of moss has been stuck on. They do not seem to be able 

 to stick the moss on to white paint. One pair tried for nearly a 

 week to make a nest on a painted ceiling of a house, and 

 covered the carpet below with scraps of moss, but failed to 

 get a single piece to stick, and so at last gave it up as a bad job. 



Sometimes four or five will come in together, and all cluster 

 in a lump where the moss is to be stuck, and then a great twit- 

 tering and skirmishing ensues, till of a sudden, all but one, 

 who is left wagging his head over the moss, disappear with a 

 sudden dash. 



Davison says : — " Of the three species of Swiftlets now 

 known to occur in the islands, this is by far the most common, 

 and it appears to be far more common at the Andamans than 

 at the Nicobars. They are very familiar birds, entering houses, 

 and even occasionally trying to form their nests in inhabited 

 rooms. I have known a pair fly into a room and take up their 

 quarters for the night in a corner against the roof, regardless 

 of people passing in and out with lights : generally, however, 

 they roost in company, and one favorite spot is in the Saw 

 Mills at Chatham Island, Port Blair. Here, towards the close of the 

 day, they assemble in vast numbers, flying in and out of the 

 building, all the while keeping up a continual twitter. It is 

 curious with what pertinacity these birds will return to a place 

 they have once chosen for roosting. Mr. Homfray informed 

 me that a large number of these birds had taken up their sleep- 

 ing quarters against the roof of a shed on Viper Island, Port Blair, 

 occupying about a square yard of the surface ; this place they 

 continued to occupy till the shed was destroyed, when, of course, 

 they all disappeared ; but after a time another shed was built 

 exactly on the same site, and as soon as the roofing was com- 

 pleted back came all the Collocalias and re-occupied the same 



