II.  PASSERES. Swallows.—­Within thirty-five miles of Caltura, on the western coast, are inland caves, to which the Esculent Swift[1] resorts, and there builds the “edible bird’s nest,” so highly prized in China.  Near the spot a few Chinese immigrants have established themselves, who rent the nests as a royalty from the government, and make an annual export of the produce.  But the Swifts are not confined to this district, and caves containing them have been found far in the interior, a fact which complicates the still unexplained mystery of the composition of their nest; and, notwithstanding the power of wing possessed by these birds, adds something to the difficulty of believing that it consists of glutinous material obtained from algae.[2] In the nests brought to me there was no trace of organisation; and the original material, whatever it be, is so elaborated by the swallow as to present somewhat the appearance and consistency of strings of isinglass.  The quantity of these nests exported from Ceylon is trifling.

[Footnote 1:  Collocalia brevirostris, McClell.; C. nidifica, Gray.]

[Footnote 2:  An epitome of what has been written on this subject will be found in Dr. Horsfield’s Catalogue of the Birds in the E.I.  Comp.  Museum, vol. i. p. 101, &c.  Mr. Morris assures me, that he has found the nests of the Esculent Swallow eighty miles distant from the sea.]

Kingfishers.—­In solitary places, where no sound breaks the silence except the gurgle of the river as it sweeps round the rocks, the lonely Kingfisher, the emblem of vigilance and patience, sits upon an overhanging branch, his turquoise plumage hardly less intense in its lustre than the deep blue of the sky above him; and so intent is his watch upon the passing fish that intrusion fails to scare him from his post.

Sun Birds.—­In the gardens the tiny Sun Birds[1] (known as the Humming Birds of Ceylon) hover all day long, attracted to the plants, over which they hang poised on their glittering wings, and inserting their curved beaks to extract the insects that nestle in the flowers.

[Footnote 1:  Nectarina Zeylanica, Linn.]

Perhaps the most graceful of the birds of Ceylon in form and motions, and the most chaste in colouring, is the one which Europeans call “the Bird of Paradise,"[1] and natives “the Cotton Thief,” from the circumstance that its tail consists of two long white feathers, which stream behind it as it flies.  Mr. Layard says:—­“I have often watched them, when seeking their insect prey, turn suddenly on their perch and whisk their long tails with a jerk over the bough, as if to protect them from injury.”

[Footnote 1:  Tchitrea paradisi, Linn.]

[Illustration:  TCHITREA PARADISI.]

The tail is sometimes brown, and the natives have the idea that the bird changes its plumage at stated periods, and that the tail-feathers become white and brown in alternate years.  The fact of the variety of plumage is no doubt true, but this story as to the alternation of colours in the same individual requires confirmation.[1]