which conjlruSls eatable Nejls. I2J 



gum with a difagreeable tafte, which perhaps might be of 

 fome ufe in flight indifpofitions of the breaft. 



Thefe nefts, therefore, are merely an article of luxury to 

 ornament the tables of the rich. The Chinefe are remark- 

 ably fond of them. After being foaked and well cleaned, 

 they put them, along with a fat capon or a duck, into an 

 earthen pot clofely covered, and fuffer them to boil for 

 twenty-four hours over a flow fire, which they call tinmen ; 

 and on account of this addition the whole difli acquires a 

 more lufcious tafte. 



The trade carried 'on with thefe nefts was fome years ago 

 not fo confidevable, but of late it has much increafed. The 

 high price of them in China, which is ftill advancing, makes 

 Batavia the principal mart of this commodity, which, as the 

 company have now given it up, is employed very ad vantage - 

 oufly by the inhabitants to leffen the prejudicial exportation 

 of fpecie. 



That this fpecies of fwallow is not to be found in China 

 is now fufficiently known. 



Linnaeus in his Syjl. Nat. gives, as a diftinguifliing mark 

 of the Hirundo efculenta, that it has white fpots only on the 

 feathers of the tail. The fmall birds in Java, however, 

 which conftruft thefe nefts, have fpots neither on the tail 

 nor on any other place. The tail feathers are entirely of 

 one colour, blackifh grey above, and a little brighter below. 



Rumph fays of his capodes marines, that the feathers of the 

 tail were fpotted, and that the breaft alio was fpeckled black 

 and white. 



Valentin, in his defcription of the fmall fwallow which 

 conftru£ts eatable nefts, mentions neither fpots nor fpeckles, 

 and fays only that the belly was undulated white and black. 

 If thefe are to be confidercd as eflential differences, it wilt 

 follow that there are two kinds of thefe fwallows : one with 

 a fpeckled breaft and white fpots on the tail feathers, and 

 the other without fpots or fpeckles. A third kind of thefe 

 fwallows would be thofe culled mo?/ios or loerongitams, Thefe 



alio 



