i8 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



our islands alone being eagerly watched and waited for 

 by those concerned. As food the eggs of Gulls and 

 Guillemots are savoury and highly nutritious, and 

 numbers of professional climbers regularly search the 

 rocks and sea-girt islands for them. They find a ready 

 sale in most seaside towns and fishing villages. The eggs 

 of Turkeys, Ducks, Geese, and Guinea Fowls are also 

 sent to the markets in considerable quantities for food. 



The nest of a species of Swift is another table 

 delicacy, highly prized by the Chinese ; and numbers of 

 people gain a livelihood in obtaining them from the 

 caves where they are built. These nests are made of a 

 mucous substance discharged by the Swift, and are 

 placed against the walls of the gloomy caves. They 

 are gathered with a kind of trident or pronged spear, on 

 which a lighted candle is placed, by the flame from 

 which the suitable nests are discovered. The men go to 

 work in pairs, one detaching the nests from the rock y 

 the other removing them from the spear and putting 

 them in a bag he carries fastened round his waist. The 

 best quality nests are bound up in packets, the inferior 

 sorts, which are the darkest, being simply threaded 

 together. Each packet contains about forty nests and 

 weighs nearly two pounds. Their commercial value is 

 about eighteen shillings a pound. The annual value of 

 the nests from the caves in Borneo alone (the property 

 of the British North Borneo Company) is about twenty- 



