Edible Birds Nests

Edible Birds'-Nests, the name given to the nests of several species of Collocalia, or Swiftlets, a genus of Cypselidee, with ten species, ranging from Madagascar over the Oriental region, and eastward through New Guinea to the Marquesas. The scientific name of the genus (from Gk. holla = glue, and Italia = a bird's nest) embodies the fact that these nests are of a gelatinous nature. These birds build in caves, and the nests when made into soups are highly prized by the Chinese and the peoples of the Eastern Archipelago. Jerdon (Birds of India) says that the nest when pure and of the first make is composed entirely of a thickened mucus secreted by the birds from their salivary glands, which are very large. It is bluntly triangular in form, small in size, and slightly concave within; of a semi-transparent, fibrous sort of texture. When these nests are taken away by the men who make a trade of collecting them, the birds make others, which are mixed with feathers and other foreign substances. Some authorities say that when the salivary glands are exhausted by repeated nest-building, the secretion becomes thin and tinged with blood, which leaves stains in the nests. Mr. Layard who visited a cave in Ceylon frequented by C. nidifitca, the Indian Swiftlet, does not confirm this. He agrees with Dr. Jerdon in describing the first nest as the only one which is quite white and clear, and says that it is sold for its weight in silver. The Chinese are the chief customers for these delicacies, the city of Canton alone importing some 25,000,000 annually, at a cost of about £870,000.