iCo THE STRAIT OF SUNDA. 
I:)y the names of the Cap and the Button. In a deep cavern, 
washed bj the sea into the side of the former, we disturbed 
such a multitude of bats and swallows, that we were literally 
driven back by the successive vollies in which they assailed 
us. The bats in particular w^ere excessively troublesome, by 
fljing entirely at random, owing to their imperfect vision on 
encountering the light at the mouth of the cave. The swal- 
lows were of that species which, in the Systema Natura, is 
called Esculent a, from the abundant use made of their nests 
in Chinese cookerj^ We found some thousands of these nests 
attached to the sides of the cavern, some containing young 
birds, and others eggs. The nests were of an oval shape, 
slightly joined to each other at the extremities of the longest 
diameter, and placed in regular and continued rows. Their 
external coating appeared to be the filaments of some species 
of sea-weed, cemented together by a viscous substance, which 
A\ as collected probably on the sea-shore : stripped of this coat- 
ing they were about an eighth of an inch in thickness, had much 
the appearance of a piece of hard glue, semi-transparent, and 
evidently composed of the same kind of gelatinous flatter 
which kept together the exterior fibres, and with Avhich the 
stones and marine plants on the shores of the island were 
covered. On the Button island we shot an igua?ia, which 
measured four feet in length, and the liesh of which, when 
roasted, w^as as white and delicate as that of a chicken. 
Half way up the strait, on the Java shore, there is a con- 
siderable village called A?ijerie, where ships may conveniently 
be supplied with water, and every kind of refreshment 
which the island affords in great abundance, and on terms 
7 
