96 CLASS AVES. 



it built its nest in the hollow limbs of white gum-trees, using 

 bark, grass, hair, or similar substances ; but when it built in 

 old houses, it made use of mud. These old houses are the 

 deserted huts of settlers, who have abandoned their worn-out 

 farms ; and the nests are constructed on the wall-plates, as 

 they are called, in the colony. Of the nests which have been 

 brought to me, I have observed that the outside was made of 

 mud, and the inside lined with feathers. Though I have 

 seen swallows more or less throughout the year, yet it is my 

 belief that they are migratory. The eyes are black." 



Although in our general introduction to birds we have 

 noticed the nests of the esculent swallow, it will be necessary 

 to add a few details on the subject in this place. 



This bird, which inhabits banks, shores, &c., is designated 

 in the Philippine Islands by the name of Salangana, and is 

 celebrated by the very singular nests which it constructs. 

 These nests have been compared to those productions called 

 by the ancients the nests of the halcyon ; but the comparison 

 does not hold good, for those maritime productions so called 

 by the ancients, are not birds^ nests, but the receptacles of 

 the polype, which at present are termed alcyonium. 



All authors are agreed on the estimation in which the 

 'Chinese, and other Asiatics, hold the nest of the Salangana, 

 as a delicacy of the table, and on the high price and value 

 which they bear ; but they differ much as to their nature, 

 form, and the places in which they are to be found. Accord- 

 ing to some, the substance of these nests is a sort of froth of 

 the sea, or of the spawn of fish, which is strongly aromatic, 

 though others assert that it has no taste at all ; some pretend 

 that it is a kind of gum, collected by the birds on the tree 

 called Calambone ; others, a viscous humour, which they 

 discharge through the bill at the season of reproduction. 

 Many again declare, that these swallows compose their nests 

 of the debris of holothnria, &c. 



As to their form, some say that it is hemispherical ; others 



