CH. V FAUNA OF TALISSE 91 



consequences that may ensue. On the first occasion I 

 came across this bird he was sitting on the top of a 

 small dead stump a few yards only from the spot where I 

 had cut my way out of the mangrove swamp, and he was 

 really so close to me that I was afraid of injuring the 

 specimen. I waited a few minutes to slip into my gun a 

 cartridge lightly loaded and with very small shot. I had 

 plenty of time, however, to take deliberate aim, and the bird 

 came down uttering most piercing shrieks. At the sound 

 of his cry four or five smsor-tailed birds, which I had not 

 noticed before, came out to join in the hubbub, and from the 

 noise they made I assumed that they were rejoicing over 

 the death of an old enemy. My boys called this bird ' Koko- 

 taka,' but Meyer (46) says that the native name is ' Tjetje.' 



Three kinds of swifts are very common in Talisse — two 

 of the birds which build the edible nests (the Collocallia 

 esculenta and fvsca), and a larger bird with very long 

 wings, the Macrojpteryx Wallacei. They may frequently be 

 seen perching on the trees of the mangrove swamps or 

 skimming over the waves of the sea in search of food. The 

 two CoUocallias build their nests in the almost inacces- 

 sible caves of the sea- shore, as described in a previous 

 chapter, but I searched in vain, both in Talisse and else- 

 where, for the nests of the Macropteryx. The native name 

 for the Macropteryx is ' Pavas.' 



The Corvus enca is a crow very commonly seen in 

 the coco-nut plantations. In size, shape, and cry it very 

 closely resembles our English crow. But the Celebean 

 bird seems to be rather smaller than those from Java, 

 Sumatra, and Borneo (24). The native name for it is 

 ' Woka-woka.' 



A shrike called by the natives ' Burong maspas,' or 

 ' Kuku inewahat ' (24), and the handsome black drongo- 

 shrike or scissor-tailed bird, Chibia leucops, or 'Burong 



