17 
XTV. INFANT MOBTALITY. 
The only concrete proposal thai can be put forward to increase the number 
of the swiftlets is one to reduce the heavy rate of infant mortality in the Goman- 
tong Caves. It is believed that this is one of the moat ijuportant recommendations 
contiiinod in this report and if carried out it can hardly fail to increase the bird 
(JOpulatiQu of the caves. 
The death rate among the yuun^^ swiftlets is high. At the time of the recent 
visit most of the young were nearly fully feathered : at this stage is their habit to 
leave the nest and cling to the walls of the cave. Bather more advanced juveniles 
were trying their wings on their first flights. The early Hedging period is an 
extremel}- critical one for the young swiftlets. Many fall to the gi'ound and cannot 
rise again : others are jostled out of the nests or lose their grip on the wall of the 
cave. All perish miserably, drowned or smothered in the guano, eaten by rats or 
starved to death. In addition to many young birds in various stages of helpless- 
ness, the number of corpses l>ear witness to the many deaths in the caves daring 
the fledging jieriod. 
A proportion of these unfortunate young birds can certainly be saved by the 
simple process oE throwing them into the air if they can fly, or replacing them on 
the rock face, as high as possiblcj if they cannot fly : in other words by giving them 
a second chance of life. Their original misfortmie was in many cases accidental 
and abstruse theories concerning the advisabihty of artificially assisting those 
individuals, presumably weak and already eliminated by nature, need not enter into 
the practical politics of the Gomantong cave at this early stage of human interfer- 
ence. There is accommodation for double the present bird population in the caves. 
The actual fledging period, e. the critical time when the death rate is highest, 
is probably only a few weeks in duration although specially directed observation is 
needed here as individual irregularities in the times of hatching and quitting the 
nest must be expected, 
A conscientious man should be stationed at the caves dm'ing this period to 
act in the manner indicated. He shonld assume duty when the first young birds 
ai'e becoming feathered and showing signs ol" leaving the nest and all birds found 
on the gi-ound should be taken back into the caves and treated in the manner 
indicated above. 
It is important that the workers should not be allowed to waste life by 
collecting the third crop of nests before the young are fledged. A former District 
Officer of the Kinabatangan said that this was always done when supei-vision 
was withdrawn. 
The above remarks have special reference to the Gomantong Caves but the 
infant mortality in the Lahad Datu caves is also notoriously high. 
XV. OTHEIi INHABITANTS OF THE CAVES: ENEMIKH. 
The swiftlets are not the only inhabitants of the caves for comitless numberg 
of bats are also found therein and other smaller creatures as well. 
Of the smaller inhabitants cockroaches and other insects, centipedes and 
spiders are perhaps the most conspicuous and all can at once be dismissed from 
