Night'jars, Swifts, and Humming-birds 



485 



the bottom, which is really blind, and one at the top, near its foundation, if we may call it 

 so, which leads into the nursery. 



Still more swallow-like in general appearance are the diminutive Edible Swifts, so called, 

 not on account of the palatability of the birds themselves, but of their nests, which are in 

 great demand by the wealthy Chinese for conversion into birds'-nest soup. It has already 

 been remarked that the salivary glands are unusually active in the swifts, their secretion 

 bearing a very important part in the construction of the nest, and serving as a kind of 

 cement. It is, therefore, not surprising that in some members of the group we find this 

 secretion playing a still more ptrominent part, forming, at least in one species, the entire 

 material of the nest. " With these nests," writes Dr. Sharpe, " a large trade is done with China 

 from many of the Malayan Islands, over 3,500,000 nests having been known to be exported 

 in a single year from Borneo to the latter country. 

 . . In Borneo and other places the caves in wliich 

 the swiftlets build are leased to the collectors for a 

 considerable sum ; but it is only the white nests, made 

 of the pure secretion, which are of any real value. 

 The nests of those species which mix into their nests 

 grass or feathers are not appreciated as an article of 

 commerce." 



Colonel Legge gives some extremely interesting 

 particulars concerning the nesting habits of these birds 

 in Ceylon. "It is noteworthy," he writes, "that the 

 partially fledged young — which were procured on this .. 

 occasion for me, and which I kept for the night — 

 scrambled out on to the exterior of the nest, and slept 

 in an upright position, with the bill pointing straight 

 up. This is evidently the normal mode of roosting 

 resorted to by this sjjecies. The interior of this cave, 

 with its numbers of active tenants, presented a singular 

 appearance. The bottom was filled with a vast dejiosit 

 of liquid guano, reaching, I was informed, to a depth 

 of 30 feet, and composed of droppings, old nests, and 

 dead young fallen fronr above, the whole mingled 

 into a loathsome mass, with water lodged in the 

 crevices, and causing an awful stench, which would 

 have been intolerable for a moment even, had not 

 the hundreds of frightened little birds, as they 

 screamed and whirred in and out of the gloomy cave 

 with a hum like a storm in a ship's rigging, power- 

 fully excited my interest, and produced a long 

 examination of the colony. This guano-deposit is a 



source of considerable profit to the estate, the hospitable manager of which informed us that 

 he had manured 100 acres of coffee with it during that season." 



HUiMMIXU-BIRDS. 



It is generally admitted that Humming- wkds are nearly related to Swifts, with which, 

 however, they stand in the strongest possible contrast in the matter of plumage-the latter 

 being always inconspicuously coloured, whilst the former are f.r the most part clad m vestments 

 so gorcreous as to render it extremely difficult to describe them in sober language. Aloreover, 

 so great is the wealth of species-some hundreds in number-and so varied are the form and 

 coloration, and so closely do the various types pass one into the other, that their classification 

 is a matter of extreme difficulty. 



EDIBLE SWIFT. 



The neits of this bird .ire used for soup ; Ave are seen in 

 this photograrih. 



