BRITISH BORNEO. 69 
CROMBY reports that, when he visited Gomanton, they shew- 
Ccmtinb esos Ok idilterent size and explained that one 
- was laid by the white-nest bird and the other by the 
black-nest builder. Sir HUGH Low, in his work on Sara- 
wak, published in 1848, asserts that there are ‘‘two differ- 
~ ent and quite dissimilar kinds of birds, though both are swal- 
lows’”’ (he should have said swifts), and that the one which 
produces the white nest is larger and of more lively colours, 
with a white belly, and is found on the sea-coast, while the 
other is smaller and darker and found more in the interior. 
He admits, however, that though he had opportunities of ob- 
serving the former, he had not been able to procure a specimen. 
The question is one which should be easily settled on the 
spot, and I recommend it to the consideration of the authori- 
ties of the British North Borneo Museum, which has been 
established at Sandakan. 
The annual value of the nests of Gomanton, when properly 
collected, has been reckoned at $23,000, but I consider this 
an excessive estimate. My friend Mr. A. COOK, the Treasurer 
of the Territory, to whose zeal and perseverance the Company 
owes much, has arranged with the Buludupih tribe to collect 
these nests on payment to the Government of a royaity of 
97,500 per annum, which is in addition to the export duty at 
the rate of 10% ad valorem paid by the Chinese exporters. 
The swifts and bats—the latter about the size of the ordin- 
ary English bat—avail themselves of the shelter afforded by 
the caves without incommoding one another, for, by a sort of 
Box and Cox arrangement, the former occupy the cavés during 
the night and the latter by day. 
Standing at the Simud Putih entrance about 5 P. M., the 
visitor will suddenly hear a whirring sound from below, which 
is caused by the myriads of bats issuing, for their nocturnal 
banquet, from the Simud Itam caves, through the wide open 
space that has been described. ‘They come out in a regularly 
ascending continuous spiral or corkscrew coil, revolving from 
left to right in a very rapid and regular manner. When the 
top of the spiral coil reaches a certain height, a colony of bats 
breaks off, and continuing to revolve in a well kept ring from 
left to right gradually ascends higher and higher, until all of 
