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TOM HARRISSON
Sarawak Museum, Kuching, Sarawak, Eastern Malaysia.
As a result of work initiated at the Sarawak Museum, Medway described and analysed the echo-location system of the cave dwelling “edible-nest swifblet”, Collocalia maxima, of Borneo1. Other work on C. salangana, which makes a moss nest (in Borneo), is as yet unpublished2; however, the taxonomy and nomenclature of all Collocalia are discussed by Medway3. The only other bird genus known to make use of echo-location is the central American oil-bird, Steatornis 4. In both genera the basic element is a loud click of short duration, comprising mixed frequencies, all audible to man.
1 Medway, Lord , Nature, 184, 1352 (1959). | ISI |
2 Novick, A. , Biol. Bull., 117, 497 (1959). | ISI |
3 Medway, Lord , Trans. Linnean Soc. (in the press, 1966).
4 Griffin, D. R. , Nat. Acad. Sci., 39, 884 (1953).
5 Medway, Lord , Ibis., 104, 45 (1962).
6 Smythies, B. E. , The Birds of Borneo, 68 (1960).
7 Cranbrook, Earl , and Medway, Lord , Ibis, 107, 258 (1965).
8 Marshall, A. J. , and Folley, S. J. , Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 126, 383 (1956).
9 Medway, Lord , Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 138, 313 (1962).
