102 
CATALOGUE. 
at ninety or one hundred dollars per pikul. The whitest and 
clearest is the best." — (Voy. to Borneo, p. 146, Lond. (1718).) 
In the year 1741, M. Poivre, late intendant of the islands Isle de 
France and Bourbon, while sailing up the Straits of Sunda on a 
voyage to China, discovered in a small rocky island, which rises as 
a solitary peak with precipitous sides from the ocean (known to 
mariners by the name of the Cap), an extensive cavern, the entrance 
to which was, at the time of his visit, darkened by a swarm of swal- 
lows passing out in a rapid stream, frantic and bewildered. On 
entering it, he found the sides lined with nests, many of which he 
collected, as well as specimens of the birds, which furnished the 
materials of an animated and detailed description, and of drawings 
which he communicated to M. Buffon, and which is given entire 
in vol. YII. p. 334, of the "Natural History of Birds." 
The drawing represents the bird with white spots on the tail- 
feathers, as indicated in the specific character of Linnseus and in 
Brisson's Ornithology, but the accuracy of which is questioned by 
modern Ornithologists. 
The article La Salakgane, in Buffon's "Hist. Nat. des Ois.," above 
cited, contains a most elaborate and learned report on the subject of 
edible birds'-nests, from the most ancient times to the period of the 
publication of the volume, compiled with much critical detail from all 
the accessible sources of information. 
About the year 1750, Osbeck, a pupil of Linnseus, visited East 
India as a Chaplain in the Swedish service : in the Faunula Sinensis, 
which J. B. Forster added to the translation of his Travels, in 1771, 
the bird is enumerated with Linnseus' s name of H. esculenta. In 
1783, Mr. Marsden published the first edition of his " History of 
Sumatra," which contains many novel and interesting remarks on the 
birds'-nests, as they are found in Sumatra, with observations on their 
history and value in commerce. 
Thunberg, whose Travels were published about the year 1790, is 
the next author who refers to this subject ; in the fourth volume, at 
page 163, he describes a visit to the caverns at Mount Tjirraton, in 
J ava, in which the esculent swallows build their nests. At this time 
he had not noticed the character by which the Javanese species — the 
H. fuciphaga, Thunb. — was distinguished from the H. esculenta of 
Linnseus. See above. 
A very full and authentic account of this bird is given by the 
Bev. J. Hooyman, in the third volume of the Batavia Society's 
Transactions, published in 1781. Besides an accurate description of 
