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Show 1884.] BIBDS'-NEST CAVES OF BOBNEO. 535 and also that it was poisonous; to convince them it was not, I allowed it to bite me. At this point I found myself at the mouth of a cave named Simud Putih, i. e. the White Cave; the entrance is about 40 feet high by 60 feet wide, and descends very steeply, widening out to a great size, and having a perpendicular unexplored abyss at its furthest point. This cave is used by the nest-gatherers as their dwelling-place, and at the entrance are their platforms of sticks, one of which was placed at m y disposal by the head man : it is also the cave by which the great body of the Swifts enter. Immediately outside it is a great circular opening leading sheer down into Simud Itam : this is one of the two openings mentioned as giving light to that cave, and is the entrance most in use by the Bats. As soon as I had unpacked and settled down on m y platform, I sallied out to find the material from which the birds make their nests, as m y previous experience is that birds do not as a rule travel far for the bulk of the material they use. I was speedily successful in m y search. It is a fungoid growth which incrusts the rock in damp places, and when fresh resembles half-melted gum tragacanth : outside it is brown but inside white, and little if any change in its consistency is effected by the bird ; the inside of the nest is, however, formed by threads of the same substance, which are drawn out of the mouth in a similar way to that of a caterpillar weaving its cocoon. The Malays told me to be sure and return to Simud Putih at 5 o'clock, as I should then see the most wonderful sight in all Borneo- the departure of the Bats and the return to roost of the Swifts. I accordingly took a seat on a block of limestone at the mouth of the cave ; the surface of the coral of which it is composed is quite fresh looking, notwithstanding that it must have been many ages in its present position, several hundred feet above sea-level. Soon I heard a rushing sound, and, peering over the edge of the circular opening leading into Simud Itam, I saw columns of Bats wheeling round the sides in regular order. Shortly after 5 o'clock, although the sun had not yet set, the columns began to rise above the edge, still in a circular flight: they then rose, wheeling round a high tree growing on the opposite side, and every few minutes a large flight would break off and, after rising high in the air, disappear in the distance ; each flight contained many thousands. I counted nineteen flocks go off in this way, and they continued to go off in a continual stream until it was too dark for me to see them any longer. Among them were three albinos, called by the Malays the Rajah, his son, and wife. At a quarter to 6 the Swifts began to come in to Simud Putih : a few had been flving in and out all day long, but now they began to pour in, at first in tens and then in hundreds, until the sound of their wings was like a strong gale of wind whistling through the rig»ing of a ship. They continued flying in until after midnight, as I could still see them flashing by over m y head when I went to sleep. As long as it remained light I found it impossible to catch any with my butterfly-net; but after dark it was only necessary to wave the ne't in the air to secure as many as I wanted. Nevertheless |