620 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



discoverers. The Si-L^or caves are now said to be the richest, 

 aud the tribes possessing them (the Semabang youth's descend- 

 ants) the wealthiest and most prosperous in Sadong/' 



There are at least four species of swallow that make these 

 curious nests, and the natives say that the entrance to the caves 

 is always occupied by another kind of swallow, which makes a 

 nest of mixed moss and gelatine, and which fights the valuable 

 birds and drives them away. They therefore always attack the 

 intruders, and endeavour to knock down their nests with stones. 

 The nests are very small and shallow, and seem scarcely capable 

 of accommodating either eggs or young birds. My own specimen 

 is exactly two inches in length, one inch and three-quarters in 

 breadth at its widest point, and scarcely more than haJf-an-inch 

 deep. Its internal shape is exactly that of a spoon-bowl, one- 

 third of which has been cut off abruptly near the handle. 



None of the purely predacious birds are remarkable for their 

 skill in architecure, and the Eagle {Aguila chrysaetos) is no ex- 

 ception to the general rule. The nest of this magnificent bird is 

 nothing more than a huge mass of sticks flung at random on 

 some rocky ledge, and having a shallow depression in .which the 

 young can lie. In general shape, or rather in shapelessness, it is 

 not unlike the nest of the osprey, which has already been de- 

 scribed, and it is so rudely put together that the sticks seem to 

 afibrd even a less commodious bed than the bare rock. 



The portion that is occupied by the young is comparatively 

 small, and the general platform of the nest serves as a sort of 

 larder, on which are deposited the birds, hares, lambs, and other 

 animals which the parents have killed aud brought home. 

 Sometimes the nest wiU be amply supplied with food, but 

 sometimes the parent birds are obliged to hunt daily. Young 

 eagles are voracious beings, and if there be no sheep flocks 

 within reach, the task of supplying them with food is a very 

 heavy one, especially when they have nearly attained maturity. 

 In feeding its young for the first few weeks of their life, the 

 eagle tears the prey into little pieces, and impartially distributes 

 the bleeding morsels to the gaping and screaming offspring. 

 Afterwards, however, when the young eagles have gained a stout 

 beak, the prey is merely dropped near them, and they tear it to 

 pieces for themselves. 



