578 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Insessores. of their surviving that inclement period. The following 

 s -~ "V~~ ^ is given by Mr Bewick, on the authority of the late Sir 

 John Trevelyan. The experiments were made by a Mr 

 Pearson. " Five or six of these birds were taken about 

 the latter end of August 1784, in a bat-fowling net, at 

 night ; they were put separately into small cages, and fed 

 with nightingale's food. In about a week or ten days 

 they took the food of themselves : they were then put 

 altogether into a deep cage, four feet long, with gravel 

 at the bottom ; a broad shallow pan with water was placed 

 in it, in which they sometimes washed themselves, and 

 seemed much strengthened by it. One day Mr Pearson 

 observed that they went into the water with unusual eager- 

 ness, hurrying in and out again repeatedly with such swift- 

 ness as if they had been suddenly seized with a frenzy. 

 Being anxious to see the result, he left them to them- 

 selves about half an hour, and on going to the cage again 

 found them all huddled together in a corner apparently 

 dead ; the cage was then placed at a proper distance from the 

 fire, when two of them only recovered, and were as healthy 

 as before — the rest died ; the two remaining ones were al- 

 lowed to wash themselves occasionally for a short time 

 only ; but their feet soon after became swelled and inflam- 

 ed, which was attributed to their perching, and they died 

 about Christmas. Thus the first year's experiments were 

 in some measure lost. Not discouraged by the failure of 

 this, Mr Pearson determined to make a second trial the 

 succeeding year, from a strong desire of being convinced 

 of the truth respecting their going into a state of torpidity. 

 Accordingly, the next season having taken some more birds, 

 he put them into the cage, and in every respect pursued 

 the same methods as with the last ; but to guard their feet 

 ■ from the bad effects of the damp and cold, he covered the 

 perches with flannel, and had the pleasure to observe that 

 the birds throve extremely well. They sang their song 

 through the winter, and soon after Christmas began to 

 moult, which they got through without any difficulty, and 

 lived three or four years, regularly moulting every year at 

 the usual time. On the renewal of their feathers, it ap- 

 peared that their tails were forked exactly the same as in 

 those birds which return hither in the spring, and in every 

 respect their appearance was the same. These birds were 

 exhibited to the Society for promoting Natural History, 

 on the 14th February 1786, at the time when they were 

 in a deep moult, during a severe frost, when the snow was 

 on the ground. They died at last in the summer, from 

 neglect during a long illness which Mr Pearson had, who 

 concludes this interesting account with the following words: 

 ' January 20, 1797. — I have now in my house, No. 21 Great 

 Newport Street, Long- Acre, four swallows in moult, in 

 as perfect health as any birds ever appeared to be in 

 when moulting.'" 1 Our only other species is the sand- 

 swallow, or bank-martin (H. riparia), of smaller size and 

 browner colour. It is the earliest of the genus ; but be- 

 ing more locally distributed, its arrival in many districts 

 is not so speedily observed. 



Among the foreign species, one of the most remarkable 

 is H. esculenta, a small brown swallow, from the Indian 

 Archipelago. Its nest, formed chiefly of a peculiar kind 

 of sea-weed, is very mucilaginous when cooked ; and its 

 restoratory virtues are held in such high esteem, that it has 

 become with eastern nations, especially the Chinese, a 

 most important article of commerce. The best kinds (such 

 as are white and transparent, and of a uniform and delicate 

 texture) sell at from a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars 

 the peckul (not more than twenty-five pounds). The 

 Dutch alone were in use to export from Batavia about a 



thousand peckuls every year; but of these, a great pro- Insessores. 

 portion was brought from the islands of Cochin-China, "*"" ~v~~"' 

 and others to the eastward. However, these nests are 

 nowhere more abundant than about Croee, near the south 

 end of Sumatra. They weigh each about half an ounce, and 

 resemble a small saucer in shape, with one side flattened, 

 by which they adhere to the rocky walls of caverns. Their 

 texture resembles that of isinglass, or fine gum-dragon. 

 When about to be used they are soaked, then pulled to 

 pieces ; and after being mixed with ginseng, are put into 

 the body of a fowl, which is stewed all night with a suffi- 

 cient quantity of water. When dissolved in broth they 

 are said to give it a delicious flavour. 2 Naturalists are not 

 agreed as to the exact mode of formation of these nests. 

 Some suppose them the result of a glandular secretion. 

 Alexander Wilson says, that the aculeated swallow (H. 

 pelasgia) of America fastens together the twigs which 

 compose its nest by means of a strongly adhesive gummy 

 matter, secreted by two glands placed on each side of the 

 hinder portion of the head. 3 



The swifts belong to the genus Cypselus of Illiger, dis- 

 tinguished by the extreme shortness of the legs, and the pe- 

 culiar character of all the four toes being directed forwards. 

 The middle and outer toes have only three articulations. 

 Of all the feathered race, these are perhaps the most vigo- 

 rous and unwearied flyers. Even in the skeleton, the short- 

 ness of the humerus, the breadth of its apophyses, the 

 oval form of the fourchette, and the sternum unnotched 

 below, indicate a structure admirably suited to sustain 

 aerial motion ; and when to these we add the enormously 

 lengthened primary feathers of the wings, we have a fly- 

 ing machine of the most powerful kind. We doubt not 

 that during every summer evening in which these sable 

 creatures pursue their gladsome gambols through the un- 

 resisting air, they travel many hundred miles. It is easy 

 to observe, that they are often on the wing incessantly for 

 hours together, careering in fine weather in vast and in- 

 tersecting circles, screaming after each other in no melo- 

 dious strains, and flying at such a maddening rate as if 

 flight were the only faculty worthy of exercise in earth or 

 heaven ; and we are sure that the same genius for arith- 

 metic which enables a school-boy to ascertain how many 

 grains of barley would surround the world, might, if ap- 

 plied to every minute's flight of this surprising bird for 

 one " purpureal eve," elicit a result in distance which 

 would astonish even a railway engineer. Our common 

 swift is the Cypselus murarius of Temm. (Hirundo apus, 

 Linn.). These birds, as well as swallows, seem in many 

 instances to return to the same spot for a series of years. 

 Dr Jenner took two claws from the foot of twelve swifts. 

 Several were re-taken in the course of one or two seasons ; 

 and at the expiration of seven years, one was brought in 

 by a cat. A larger species (C. alpinus, Temm.), frequent 

 among the Alps of Switzerland and the Tyrol, and well 

 known at Gibraltar, has occurred occasionally in Ireland. 

 There are a great many foreign species, both of swifts and 

 swallows. 



In the genus Caprimulgus, Linn., the gape is still 

 wider, and the beak is bristled at the base with stiffish 

 hairs. The wings are very long, the legs short, the tarsi 

 usually feathered, the toes united at the base by a mem- 

 brane, slightly connecting even the hinder toe, which 

 is somewhat versatile ; the middle toe is often toothed on 

 its inner edge (see Plate CCCXCI. fig. 6 a) ; and the 

 outer one, by a conformation of rare occurrence amongst 

 birds, has only four articulations. 



The Caprimulgi or goat-suckers (an absurd and fabu- 



1 Bewick's British Birds, i. 254. 



* See Shaw's General Zoology, vol. x. p. Ill ; and Sir G. Staunton's Embassy to China, vol. i. p. 288, and vol. ii. p. 5. This spe- 

 cies seems described under the name of H fitciphaga, in Act. Holm. t. xxxiii. p. 151. 



* American Ornithology, vol. ii. p. 24. ' 



