_Hirundo pœciloma._—+MIHI.+
[15] Length 5¹⁄₄ inches, expanse 11, flexure 4, tail 1¹⁷⁄₂₀, rictus
¹¹⁄₂₀, beak along culmen ³⁄₁₀, tarsus ⁵⁄₁₀, middle toe ⁵⁄₁₀,
lateral toes ³⁄₁₀, equal.
Irides dark brown; beak black, feet dark grey. Forehead dark
chestnut; crown and hind head black, glossed with greenish-blue;
cheeks, chin, and throat paler chestnut, separated from that of
the forehead by the black passing over each eye to the nostrils;
the chestnut of the throat runs up in a narrow collar round the
neck; back variegated with blue-green, and white, each feather
being white, with a dark tip; rump chestnut, the feathers sometimes
having pale tips; tail-coverts and tail brownish black, the former
having pale tips; tail nearly even; wings brownish black, the
tertiaries _in some_, edged and tipped with white; breast and sides
pale chestnut, the colour deepening in a crescent-shaped band
across the breast; medial belly, white; under tail-coverts pale
chestnut. First and second quills equal. Legs feathered to the
tarsal joint. The sexes exactly alike.
Intestine 4 inches; two minute cæca ³⁄₄ of an inch from cloaca.
Mature consideration convinces me that this species is quite distinct
from the _H. fulva_ of Vieillot though closely allied to it. The
present may be at once recognised by the conspicuous mottling of its
shoulders and back with white and blue black, a character which, as far
as I have examined, is invariable. The form of its nest also differs
greatly from the bottle-like structures of the interesting bird of the
Rocky Mountains.
The Cave Swallow does not appear to be in any degree migratory in
Jamaica, being abundantly common at all seasons. It delights in the
neighbourhood of caverns and overhanging rocks, in the hollows of which
it builds its ingenious nest. About a mile from Bluefields, the sea
washes a precipitous rock of no great height, on the summit of which is
an old fort, with some great guns, which tradition ascribes to the old
Spanish settlers, but now dismantled, and within and without overrun
with spiny pinguins and logwood bushes, and tangled with creepers. I
have no doubt that this was the site of the Spanish town Oristana,
some remains of the houses of which may yet be seen in the provision
ground of a negro peasant adjoining. The foot of the cliff is girt with
irregular masses of honey-combed rock, between which the incoming tide
rolls, and frets, and boils, in foaming confusion; and the front is
hollowed into caves, some of which are long passages with an opening
at each end, and others are merely wide-mouthed, but shallow hollows.
In one of these I counted forty nests of this species of Swallow, each
consisting of a half cup, built with little pellets of mud, retaining,
in so damp a situation, and where the rock itself is covered with a
slimy mouldiness,—their original humidity. Each was thickly lined with
silk-cotton. If we imagine a pint basin divided perpendicularly through
the middle, and the one-half stuck against a wall, we shall perceive
the form of these nests; some, however, were both larger and deeper
than this. In many instances advantage was taken of a slight hollow
in the rock, which increased the capacity. In one, (it was about the
middle of July,) I found three eggs; in some others the callow young,
and in one two full fledged birds, which lay quietly in the nest, side
by side, while their black eyes watched my motions. The parent birds
flew about in affright, occasionally coming close up to the nests, and
hovering as if about to alight, but scarcely one ventured in. The eggs
measure about ⁸⁄₁₀ inch long, and ¹¹⁄₂₀ wide; they are white, studded
with dots and spots of dull red; but in many eggs which I have examined
there is much variation in size, form, and colour. The young birds
scarcely differed from the adult.
In May, my kind friend Mr. Aaron Deleon, took me to a curious cavern,
situated on the estate called Amity, some few miles from Savannah le
Mar, but inland. Through its dark recesses a subterraneous river flows,
so still and so perfectly transparent, that although two or three feet
deep, I did not perceive that there was a drop of water there, but took
the atoms floating on its surface, to be lodged in invisible spiders’
webs, stretched across. Numerous Swallows were flying in and out, and
the roof was studded with nests similar to those above described.
Though this little Swallow manifests a decided predilection for
cavernous recesses, it does not confine itself to situations so
recluse. In that part of the “King’s House,” at Spanish town, which
is called the Arcade, where clerks are writing, and public business
is transacted every day, great numbers of these nests are affixed to
the beams and joists, and the birds are continually flying to and fro.
Before the year 1838, they had built in the Secretary’s Office, from
time immemorial; but it was not in consequence of any molestation
there, that in the Year of Freedom, they chose the vice-regal abode.
Did they then recognise the administrator of England’s power as the
friend of Jamaica?
In December, January, and February, the birds, though they fly in and
out of the august abode without reserve, as if to maintain their right
of way, do not make use of the nests; but all the rest of the year,
these mud habitations are occupied. In March the old birds begin to
repair and tenant their former nests; but the young, having no home
ready made, are compelled to wait until the May rains have moistened
the earth in the roads, to afford them mud for their structures.
But as soon as these seasonal changes have taken place, these birds
may be seen congregated on the roads, in groups of fifty together,
huddled at the edges of the pools formed by the daily rains, and in
those places where the power of the morning sun has already evaporated
the water, and the mud has begun to acquire a stiffness of consistence,
which probably is more suitable for moulding to their nests. As
they alight to pick up the pellets, their wings are held nearly
perpendicularly over the back, and they are incessantly fluttering
about, apparently hindering one another by their crowding. Many may be
seen engaged, where the pools are a little wider, or where the streams
that cross the road dilate into a broad surface, in sweeping backward
and forward over the water, which at every turn they just kiss with
their beaks. I know not whether they are drinking, or capturing minute
surface insects.