THE INDIAN OCEAN. 351 
acquainted. As he proceeded, he found the roof of 
the cave entirely covered with small nests, shaped 
“like holy-water pots.” Each of the nests con- 
tained two or three eggs or young, which lay softly 
on feathers, such as clothed the breast of the parents. 
They were found to be glued firmly to the rock, but 
having detached several, and brought them on board, 
they were recognized to be the same with those 
which form so valuable an article of merchandize in 
China. The sailor, profiting by this information, 
preserved his portion, which he afterwards sold well 
at Canton. The intelligent traveller, on the other 
hand, took coloured drawings of his captures, and 
speculated concerning the nature of the nest. He 
conjectures, that it is composed of a gluey substance 
often seen floating in those seas, which he considers 
to be fish spawn. 
More recent accounts agree generally with this. 
In alittle island on the coast of Java, called the Cap, 
Sir George Staunton found some caverns running 
horizontally into the side of the rock, in which were 
numbers of these birds’-nests. “They seemed to be 
composed of fine filaments, cemented together by a 
‘transparent viscous matter, not unlike what is left 
by the foam of the sea upon stones alternately 
covered by the tide, or those gelatinous animal sub- 
stances found floating on every coast. The nests 
adhere to each other, and to the sides of the cavern, 
mostly in rows without any break or interruption. 
The birds that build these nests are small grey swal- 
lows, with bellies of a dirty white. They were flying 
about in considerable numbers; but they were so 
