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."