[Footnote 1: Syrnium indranee, _Sykes_. The horror of this nocturnal scream was equally prevalent in the West as in the East. Ovid Introduces it in his _Fasti_, L. vi. 1. 139; and Tibullus in his Elegies, L.i. El 5. Statius says-- "Nocturnæ-que gemunt striges, et feralia bubo _Danna canens_." Theb. iii. I. 511. But Pliny, 1. xi. c. 93, doubts as to what bird produced the sound; and the details of Ovid's description do not apply to an owl. Mr. Mitford, of the Ceylon Civil Service, to whom I am indebted for many valuable notes relative to the birds of the island, regards the identification of the Singhalese Devil-Bird as open to similar doubt: he says--"The Devil-Bird is not am owl. I never heard it until I came to Kornegalle, where it haunts the rocky hill at the back of Government-House. Its ordinary note is a magnificent clear shout like that of a human being, and which can be heard at a great distance, and has a fine effect in the silence of the closing night. It has another cry like that of a hen just caught, but the sounds which have earned for it its bad name, and which I have heard but once to perfection, are indescribable, the most appalling that can be imagined, and scarcely to be heard without shuddering; I can only compare it to a boy in torture, whose screams are being stopped by being strangled. I have offered rewards for a specimen, but without success. The only European who had seen and fired at one agreed with the natives that it is of the size of a pigeon, with a long tail. I believe it is a Podargus or Night Hawk," In a subsequent note he further says--"I have since seen two birds by moonlight, one of the size and shape of a cuckoo, the other a large black bird, which I imagine to be the one which gives these calls."] 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 algæ.[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_.]