EDIBLE-NEST SWIFTLETS.
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LARGER IMAGE
Swifts appear to be found all over the world, the most graceful being perhaps the Tree Swifts (Dendrochelidon), which inhabit India and the Malayan region. In this same part of the world are also found the Edible-nest Swiftlets (Collocalia), which breed in caves, their nests being eaten by the Chinese and other Asiatic people. Dr. Jerdon says:—“The nest, when pure and of the first make, is composed entirely of inspissated mucus from the large salivary glands of the bird. It is very small, bluntly triangular in form, and slightly concave within; of a semi-transparent, fibrous sort of texture, bluish-white in colour, and with the fibres, as it were, crossed and interlaced. When the nests of the first make are taken away, the second nests are mixed with feathers, and occasionally other foreign substances. The eggs are two in number, and pure white.” Mr. E. L. Layard gives the following account of a visit to a cave inhabited by the Indian Swiftlet in Ceylon:—“I have at last visited the cave in which Collocalia nidifica[287] builds, and will now, with the aid of my journal, give all the information I can, sending you birds skinned and in spirit, and a young nestling taken from the nest with my own hand. The cave is situated at a place called Havissay, about thirty-five miles from the sea and twenty from the river, and about 500 feet up a fine wood-clad hill, called Diagallagoolawa, or Hoonoomooloocota. Its dimensions are as follows:—Length between fifty and sixty feet, about twenty-six broad, and twenty high. It is a mass of limestone rock, which has cracked off the hill-side, and slipped down on to some boulders below its original position, forming a hollow triangle. There are three entrances to the cave; one at each end, and one very small one in the centre. The floor consists of large boulders, covered to the depth of two or three inches with the droppings of the birds, old and young, and the bits of grass they bring in to fabricate their nests. The only light which penetrates the cavern from the entrances above mentioned is very dim. When my eyes, however, got accustomed to the light, I could see many hundreds of nests glued to the side of the fallen rock, but none to the other side, or hill itself. This I attribute to the fact of the face of the main rock being evidently subject to the influence of the weather, and perhaps to the heavy dews off the trees; but for this, the side in question would have been far more convenient for the birds to have built on, as it sloped gently outward, whereas the other was much overhung, and caused the birds to build their nests of an awkward shape, besides taking up more substance. I was at the spot a few days before Christmas, and fancy that must be about the time to see the nests in perfection. This is corroborated by the fact of my finding young birds in all the nests taken by me, and by what the old Chinaman said, that the ‘take’ came on in October. I find that they have three different qualities of nests, and send two for your inspection. The best is very clean, white as snow, and thin, and is also very expensive. The most inferior are composed of dry grasses, hair, &c., but I could not detect anything like the bloody secretion, as described (‘though only under peculiar circumstances of exhaustion’) by Mr. Barbe, even in a fresh nest. I was in the cave late (after 5 P.M.) in the evening of a day which threatened rain, but the old birds were still flying round the summit of the mountain at a vast altitude, occasionally dashing down into the cave with food for their nestlings. By daylight next morning I was on foot, but the birds were before me, hawking on the plain below and all about the hills. I have found the birds here, in Colombo, in Kandy, and all along the road we went. I could learn nothing of the number of eggs laid, nor of their colour. I found one bird in each nest. The Chinese who live on the spot pretend not to understand anything asked them, and the apathetic Cingalese have never taken the trouble to see for themselves, so they could give me no information. The aspect of the country, broken and rugged, coupled with the numerous flocks of birds I saw flying round the various hills, leads me to think there must be many breeding-places yet undiscovered. One, however, was pointed out, but we had not time to visit it. I could not hear of any other kind of Swift breeding there, but have just received such information as leads me to suppose that C. fuciphaga builds near Jaffna on some rocks overhanging the sea. I may further add that there were no Bats in the cave with C. nidifica, nor did I see any bird of prey, save a fine Hæmatornis, which I shot. The Cingalese name for C. nidifica is Wahlæna.”
WHITE-THROATED SPINE-TAILED SWIFT.
THE TWELFTH FAMILY OF THE FISSIROSTRAL PICARIAN BIRDS.—THE HUMMING BIRDS (Trochilidæ).
These exquisite little creatures are perhaps the largest family of birds known, numbering, at the present day, nearly five hundred species. It is simply impossible in a work like the present to do more than allude to a family, the full description of which by Mr. Gould has occupied five large folio volumes. An immense variety of form and colour is presented to us. All the birds are of small size, some of them being no larger than Hawk-moths, to which in their manner of flight they bear considerable resemblance.
SWORD-BILL HUMMING BIRD.
In some countries Humming-birds are tolerably common, but some species are of extreme rarity, such, for instance, as the Loddigesia mirabilis, which was discovered forty years ago, and still remains represented by a single specimen in the collection of the late Mr. George Loddiges, and of which a reward of fifty pounds, offered by Mr. Gould, has not succeeded in obtaining a second example. As a rule, Humming-birds are a Neotropical family, that is to say, the vast majority of the species occur in South America, and do not wander above the line of Northern Mexico; but a few species are found in the Southern United States, while one occurs in summer even in North America, ranging as far as, and even breeding in, Canada. Professor Newton writes:—“Wilson, Audubon, Mr. Gosse, and several others gifted with the ‘pen of a ready writer,’ have so fully described, as far as words will admit, the habits of different members of the family Trochilidæ, that it is unnecessary to say much on this score. Their appearance is so entirely unlike that of any other birds that it is hopeless to attempt in any way to bring a just conception of it to the ideas of those who have not crossed the Atlantic; and even the comparison so often made between them and the Sphingidæ, though doubtless in the main true, is much to the advantage of the latter. One is admiring the clustering stars of a scarlet Cordia, the snowy cornucopias of a Portlandia, or some other brilliant and beautiful flower, when between the blossoms and one’s eye suddenly appears a small dark object, suspended as it were between four short black threads meeting each other in a cross. For an instant it shows in front of the flower; an instant more it steadies itself, and one perceives the space between each pair of threads occupied by a grey film; again another instant, and, emitting a momentary flash of emerald and sapphire light, it is vanishing, lessening in the distance as it shoots away, to a speck that the eye cannot take note of—and all this so rapidly that the word on one’s lips is still unspoken, scarcely the thought in one’s mind changed. It was a bold man or an ignorant one who first ventured to depict Humming birds flying; but it cannot be denied that representations of them are often of special use to the ornithologist. The peculiar action of one, and probably of many or all other species of the family, is such, that at times in flying it makes the wings almost meet, both in front and behind, at each vibration. Thus, when a bird chances to enter a room it will generally go buzzing along the cornice. Standing beneath where it is, one will find that the axis of the body is vertical, and each wing is describing a nearly perfect semicircle. As might be expected, the pectoral muscles are very large; indeed, the sternum of this bird is a good deal bigger than that of the common Chimney Swallow (Hirundo rustica). But the extraordinary rapidity with which the vibrations are effected seems to be chiefly caused by these powerful muscles acting on the very short wingbones, which are not half the length of the same parts in the Swallow; and accordingly, great as this alar action is, and in spite of the contrary opinion entertained by Mr. Gosse, it is yet sometimes wanting in power, owing, doubtless, to the disadvantageous leverage thus obtained; and the old authors must be credited who speak of cobwebs catching Humming birds. On the 3rd of May, 1857, a bird of this species flew into the room where I was sitting, and after fluttering for some minutes against the ceiling, came in contact with a deserted spider’s web, in which it got entangled, and remained suspended and perfectly helpless for more than a minute, when by a violent effort it freed itself. I soon after caught it, still having fragments of the web on its head, neck, and wings; and I feel pretty sure, that had this web been inhabited and in good repair, instead of being deserted and dilapidated, the bird would never have escaped.”