II.  PASSERES. Swallows.—­Within thirty-five miles of Caltura, on the western coast, are inland caves, the resort of the Esculent Swift[1], which 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 royalty from the government, and make an annual export of their 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 algae.[2] In the nests brought to me there was no trace of organisation; and whatever may be the original material, it 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, etc.]

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 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; the emblem of vigilance and patience.

Sun Birds.—­In the gardens the Sun Birds[1] (known as the Humming Birds of Ceylon) hover all day long, attracted by the plants over which they hang, poised on their glittering wings, and inserting their curved beaks to extract the tiny insects that nestle in the flowers.  Perhaps the most graceful of the birds of Ceylon in form and motions, and the most chaste in colouring, is that which Europeans call “the Bird of Paradise,"[2] and the 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:  Nectarina Zeylanica, Linn.]

[Footnote 2:  Tchitrea paradisi, Linn.]