EDIBLE SWIFT.
The nests of this bird are used for soup; five are seen in this photograph.
Still more swallow-like in general appearance are the diminutive Edible Swifts, so called, not on account of the palatability of the birds themselves, but of their nests, which are in great demand by the wealthy Chinese for conversion into birds'-nest soup. It has already been remarked that the salivary glands are unusually active in the swifts, their secretion bearing a very important part in the construction of the nest, and serving as a kind of cement. It is, therefore, not surprising that in some members of the group we find this secretion playing a still more prominent part, forming, at least in one species, the entire material of the nest. "With these nests," writes Dr. Sharpe, "a large trade is done with China from many of the Malayan Islands, over 3,500,000 nests having been known to be exported in a single year from Borneo to the latter country.... In Borneo and other places the caves in which the swiftlets build are leased to the collectors for a considerable sum; but it is only the white nests, made of the pure secretion, which are of any real value. The nests of those species which mix into their nests grass or feathers are not appreciated as an article of commerce."
Colonel Legge gives some extremely interesting particulars concerning the nesting habits of these birds in Ceylon. "It is noteworthy," he writes, "that the partially fledged young—which were procured on this occasion for me, and which I kept for the night—scrambled out on to the exterior of the nest, and slept in an upright position, with the bill pointing straight up. This is evidently the normal mode of roosting resorted to by this species. The interior of this cave, with its numbers of active tenants, presented a singular appearance. The bottom was filled with a vast deposit of liquid guano, reaching, I was informed, to a depth of 30 feet, and composed of droppings, old nests, and dead young fallen from above, the whole mingled into a loathsome mass, with water lodged in the crevices, and causing an awful stench, which would have been intolerable for a moment even, had not the hundreds of frightened little birds, as they screamed and whirred in and out of the gloomy cave with a hum like a storm in a ship's rigging, powerfully excited my interest, and produced a long examination of the colony. This guano-deposit is a source of considerable profit to the estate, the hospitable manager of which informed us that he had manured 100 acres of coffee with it during that season."
Humming-birds.
It is generally admitted that Humming-birds are nearly related to Swifts, with which, however, they stand in the strongest possible contrast in the matter of plumage—the latter being always inconspicuously coloured, whilst the former are for the most part clad in vestments so gorgeous as to render it extremely difficult to describe them in sober language. Moreover, so great is the wealth of species—some hundreds in number—and so varied are the form and coloration, and so closely do the various types pass one into the other, that their classification is a matter of extreme difficulty.
Confined to the American Continent and certain islands adjacent thereto, humming-birds range from Canada to Tierra del Fuego in a horizontal direction, and rise vertically in the mountain-range of Chimborazo to a height of 16,000 feet above the sea-level—"dwelling," as Professor Newton describes it, "in a world of almost constant hail, sleet, and rain, and feeding on the insects which resort to the indigenous flowering plants."
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
RUBY-THROATED HUMMING-BIRDS.