418 
MATERIALS OF THE NEST. 
Take Poivre : writing to Buffon, he says that the surface of the sea, 
between Java and Cochin-China, Sumatra and New Guinea, is 
covered with a substance like strong glue, half diluted ; and that this 
substance, when coagulated, exactly resembles the material employed 
by the salangane. Take Sir Stamford Raffles, who in all that he saw 
himself may fairly be trusted : he does but repeat the opinion of 
Rumphius, that it is a secretionary product ; adding that it is streaked 
with blood, owing to the difficulty undergone by the bird in voiding 
it. Home, having opened the stomach of a salangane, found the 
excretionary ducts of the stomachic glands considerably developed, 
with a tubular opening, divided into several lobes, like the petals of a 
flower, and he concluded that these lobes secreted the mucus of which 
the nest was formed. Marsden, the author of a truly valuable work 
on Sumatra, having chemically analyzed a nest, formed an opinion 
that the substance composing it was a mean between albumen and 
gelatine ; that it resisted for some time the action of boiling water, 
swelling considerably in a few hours, and, on drying, turning hard 
again, but brittle. So much for these different authorities, in the 
multitude of whom there is neither wisdom nor truth. 
Bernstein remarks, however, that we should not be astonished at 
the astounding diversity of opinion which we have concisely indicated. 
He apologizes for his predecessors, on the ground that they trusted to 
the stories told by ignorant and superstitious natives ; and observes 
that it was impossible for them to arrive at an accurate judgment, so 
long as they were content to compare the external characteristics of 
the salangane's building material with those of other and com- 
pletely different substances. To learn tlie truth, the naturalist must 
watch the procedures of the bird while alive. This is difficult, from 
his habit of building in caverns more or less impracticable, into 
which the light of day laboriousl}'^ and only imperfectly enters. For- 
tunately, a kindred species inhabiting Java, and known there under the 
name of kusappi, can be observed with tolerable facility; inasmuch as 
he builds in accessible places — either at the mouth of caverns, or along 
the face of the cliffs. And Bernstein had several opportunities of 
watching the way in which his edible nest is constructed. 
