224 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE 



into packets with strips of rattan, the inferior being 

 simply threaded together; the best packets generally 

 weigh one catty (l%lb.), averaging forty nests, and 

 are sold at $9 each, the annual value of the nests 

 gathered being $25,000. These caves have been worked 

 for seven generations without any diminution in the 

 quantity ; three crops are taken during the year. 



The white nests are supplied entirely by the inspissated 

 saliva of the bird, and are the first produced. These are 

 taken and sold for their weight in silver. The next 

 made by the birds are mixed with rootlets, grass, etc., 

 and often show traces of blood, from the efforts of the 

 birds to produce the saliva. They are esteemed second 

 quality. The third nest is composed of extraneous sub- 

 stances cemented together and to the rock with a little 

 saliva; these are generally left to the birds to breed in, 

 and are usually destroyed at the end of the season, to 

 compel the birds to build fresh white ones. 



History of American Birds as Food 



The ruthless slaughter of birds in Italy has 

 been touched upon in a previous section of this 

 chapter, as has the scientific marketing of game- 

 birds in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe. 

 We now arrive at the game markets of America, 

 and what an ugly story we find it is ! 



When the first white settler reached America 

 he was amazed at the hosts of all manner and de- 

 scriptions of birds. So numerous were they that 



