EDIBLE SWALLOW NESTS. 



The collecting of these nests continues no longer 

 than a month, and, as already mentioned, may be re- 

 peated three times in the year. Some believe that it 

 may be done a fourth time; but this is not probable, as 

 all experienced people brought up to this employment con- 

 fidently assert, that a nest, as long as it remains entire, 

 is continually enlarged by the bird, or made thicker, 

 until it is entirely deserted by her. when it becomes dry 

 or hairy in the inside. When the nests have been col- 

 lected, no further trouble is necessary than to dry and 

 clean them; after which they are put in baskets, and 

 sold to the Chinese. The price of them depends on 

 their whiteness and fineness. Those of the best sort 

 are exceedingly scarce. They are sold at the rate of 

 from eight to fourteen hundred rix-dollars per one 

 hundred and twenty-five pounds, which amounts in our 

 money to the sum of from thirty to forty-two shillings 

 per pound. This high price and the great avarice of the 

 Chinese, give rise to much dishonesty and thieving. 

 The two places above mentioned were, about fifty years 

 ago, sold by auction by the Dutch East India Company 

 to the highest bidder, who received for them above 

 twenty thousand pounds more than they expected, which 

 proves, the value and quantity of these singular produc- 

 tions. About two thousand five hundred pounds' weight 

 of these nests are collected every year in the island of 

 Java, which, at an average of the above prices, amounts 

 to about five thousand pounds a-year. 



Some of these bird-caverns are dreadfully exposed, 

 particularly a few situated on the coast ; these are washed 

 by the sea, which forces its way so deep into the latter, 

 that fish may be caught in it ; but on account of the 

 steepness of the rocks, the nests can only be collected 

 at the most imminent risk. The young birds are eaten, 

 both by the Javanese and the Europeans in India ; but 

 they are considered to be very heating, and are, more- 

 over, difficult to procure. The nests on the other hand, 

 when they have been boiled to a kind of slimy sort of 



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