BIRDS' NEST BI REN. 



541 



nests, we extract from Mr Crawfurd's excellent work 

 on the Eastern Archipelago. 



" The best nests are those obtained in deep damp 

 Taves, and such as are taken before the birds have 

 laid their eggs. The coarsest are those obtained after 

 the young have been fledged. The finest nests are 

 the whitest, that is, those taken before the nest has 

 been rendered impure by the food and fasces of the 

 young birds. They are taken twice a-year, and, if 

 regularly collected, and no unusual injury be offered 

 to the caverns, will produce very equally, the quantity 

 being very little, if at all, improved by the caves be- 

 ing left altogether unmolested for a year or two. 

 Some of the caverns are extremely difficult of access, 

 and the nests can only be collected by persons accus- 

 tomed from their youth to the office. The most re- 

 markable and productive caves in Java, of which I 

 superintended a moiety of the collection for several 

 years, are those of Karang-bolang, in the province of 

 JBaglen, on the south coast of the island. Here the 

 caves are only to be approached by a perpendicular 

 descent of many hundred feet, by ladders of bamboo 

 and rattan, over a sea rolling violently against the 

 rocks. When the mouth of the cavern is attained, 

 the perilous office of taking the nests must often be 

 performed with torch light, by penetrating into re- 

 cesses of the rock, where the slightest trip would be 

 instantly fatal to the adventurers, who see nothing 

 below them but the turbulent surf making its way 

 into the chasms of the rock. 



" The only preparation which the birds' nests un- 

 dergo is that of simple drying, without direct expo- 

 sure to the sun, after which they are packed in small 

 boxes, usually of half a picul. They are assorted for 

 Ihe Chinese market into three kinds, according to 

 their qualities, distinguished into first or best, second, 

 and third qualities. Caverns that are regularly ma- 

 naged, will afford in one hundred parts, fifty-three 

 three-tenth parts of those of the first quality, thirty- 

 five parts of those of the second, and eleven seven- 

 tenth parts of those of the third. 



" The common prices for .birds' nests at Canton, 

 are, for the first sort, no less than 3,500 Spanish dol- 

 lars the picul, or 5 18s. l^rf. per pound; for the 

 second, 2,800 Spanish dollars per picul ; and for the 

 third, 1,600 Spanish dollars. From these prices it 

 is sufficiently evident, that the birds' nests are no 

 more than an article of expensive luxury. They are 

 consumed only by the great ; and, indeed, the best 

 part is sent to the capital for the consumption of the 

 court. The sensual Chinese use them, under the 

 imagination that they are powerfully stimulating and 

 tonic; but it is probable that their most valuable 

 quality is their being perfectly harmless. The peo- 

 ple of Japan, who so much resemble the Chinese in 

 many of their habits, have no taste for the edible 

 nests ; and how the latter acquired a taste for this 

 foreign commodity is no less singular than their per- 

 severing in it. Among the western nations there is 

 nothing parallel to it, unless we except the whimsical 

 estimation in which the Romans held some articles of 

 luxury, remarkable for their scarcity rather than for 

 any qualities ascribed to them." 



Mr Crawfurd estimates the whole quantity of birds' 

 nests exported from the Archipelago at 242,400 Ibs., 

 worth 284,290. " The value," he observes, " of 

 this immense property to the country which produces 

 it, rests upon the capricious wants of a single people. 

 It is claimed as the exclusive property of the sove- 

 reign, and every where forms a valuable branch of 

 his income, or of the revenue of the state. This 

 ralue, however, is of course not equal, and depends 

 upon the situation and the circumstances connected 

 with the caverns in which the nests are found. Being 

 often in remote and sequestered situations, in a coun- 



try so lawless, a property so valuable and exposed is 

 subject to the perpetual depredation of freebooters ; 

 and it not unfrequently happens, that an attack upon 

 it is the principal object of the warfare committed by 

 one petty state against another. In such situations, 

 the expense of affording them protection is so heavy, 

 that they are necessarily of little value. In situations 

 where the caverns are difficult of access to strangers, 

 and where there reigns enough of order and tran- 

 quillity to secure them from internal depredation, 

 and to admit of the nests being obtained without 

 other expense than the simple labour of collecting 

 them, the value of the property is very great. The 

 caverns of Karang bolang, in Java, are of this de- 

 scription. These annually afford 6,810 Ibs. of nests, 

 which are worth, at the Batavia prices of 3,200, 

 2,500, and 1,200 Spanish dollars the picul, for the 

 respective kinds, nearly 139,000 Spanish dollars; 

 and the whole expense of collecting, curing, and 

 packing, amounts to no more than 11 per cent, on 

 this amount. The price of birds' nests is of course a 

 monopoly price, the quantity produced being by na- 

 ture limited, and incapable of augmentation. The 

 value of the labour expended in bringing birds' nests 

 to market is but a trifling portion of their price, 

 which consists of the highest sum that the luxurious 

 Chinese will afford to pay for them, and which is a 

 tax paid by that nation to the inhabitants of the In- 

 dian islands. There is, perhaps, no production upon 

 which human industry is exerted, of which the cost 

 of production bears so small a proportion to the mar- 

 ket price." 



BIREN, Ernst John von, duke of Courland, born in 

 1687, was, as is asserted, the grandson of a groom of 

 James, duke of Courland, and the son of a Courlandish 

 peasant of the name of Buhren. He studied at Ko- 

 nigsberg, and endeavoured to conceal the meanness of 

 his origin by raising himself in the favour of the great. 

 His agreeable person and very cultivated mind, pro- 

 cured him the highest favour of Anna, duchess of 

 Courland, and niece of the emperor of Russia ; but 

 he was unsuccessful in his attempt to obtain admis- 

 sion among the Courlandish nobility. When Anna 

 (q. v.) ascended the Russian throne (1730), B., in 

 spite of the conditions to which the empress had con- 

 sented (one of which was not to bring him with her 

 to Russia), was loaded by her with honours, and in- 

 troduced at the Russian court. Here he assumed 

 the name and coat of arms of the dukes of Biron in 

 France, and governed under the name of his mistress. 

 Fierce and haughty by nature, he indulged his ha- 

 tred against the rivals of his ambition. The princes 

 Dolgorucky were his first victims. He caused 11,000 

 persons to be put to death, and double that number 

 to be exiled. It is said, that the empress often threw 

 herself at his feet, to induce him to lay aside his se- 

 verity, but that neither her entreaties nor her tears 

 were able to move him. The firmness of his charac- 

 ter, however, introduced vigour and activity into all 

 branches of the administration throughout the great 

 empire. In 1737, Anna forced the Courlanders to 

 choose her favourite (who had, in 1722, married a 

 Courlandish lady of the family of Trotta, by the name 

 of Treyden) for their duke. After having declared 

 prince Ivan her successor, she appointed B., accord- 

 ing to his wish, regent. Anna died, Oct. 28, 1740. 

 The new regent acted with prudence and moderation. 

 But a secret conspiracy was soon formed against him. 

 Field-marshal Munich, with the consent ofthe young 

 emperor's mother, caused him to be arrested in his 

 bed, during the night of Nov. 19, 1740, by Manstein, 

 and to be confined in the castle of Schlusselburg. He 

 was subjected to a trial ; but, no proofo of the pro- 

 jects, whicli he was accused of having formed for the 

 advantage of his family, being discovered, the sen- 



