THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 285 



M. Poivre, who to the title of Governor of the Isle of 

 France, united another which conferred far higher renown 

 upon him, that of a distinguished philosopher, was the first 

 who cleared up the history of the Salanganes, and gathered 

 some of their nests with his own hands ; but he was mis- 

 taken in supposing that these swallows built them of fish- 

 spawn, an opinion which long prevailed. 



It was M. Lamouroux who, first of all, in 1821, gave us 

 an exact account of the composition of these extraordinary 

 nests. He found out that the birds build them of various 

 marine plants which they gather in the waves, belonging 

 chiefly to the genera Gelidium and Sphserococcus. These 

 the swallows bear away from the surface, while skimming 

 over the billows, gulp down, and afterwards disgorge, mixed 

 with their digestive fluids, which render them glutinous and 

 facilitate the building of the maternal homes. 



The gathering of these nests is dangerous, because the 

 swallows often place them in the depths of inaccessible cav- 

 erns, into which it is necessary to slide by a rope or descend 

 by means of long bamboo ladders. The Chinese, who make 

 a business of collecting them, only begin after they have 

 secured the protection of the gods by certain preliminary 

 sacrifices, and perfumed the entrance to the caverns with 

 benzoin or other odoriferous substances. 



The nests of these swallows have acquired great celebrity 

 on account of the use to which they are put in China for 

 food. There they are an indispensable ornament of every 

 grand repast. Their price is very high, so that persons who 

 own caverns frequented by these swallows derive consider- 

 ble revenues from them. Broken up into little morsels 



