BIRDS' NESTS GOOD FOOD.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 11110, 6 May 1911, Page 10

BIRDS' NESTS GOOD FOOD.

**' * CHINESE SOUP PRAISED, Nearly every boy and girl who studies geography learns that the Chinese think that a soil]) made from nests of birds is a great (able delicacy. J] any children wonder at this, seeing that the birds' nests in our own country are anything but palatable (writes Anna Hillings Gallup). ■ There are, however, plenty of birds' nests good lo eat. The birds breed in limestone caves, very numerous in their part of the world, the famous Simml Putih or AVhite Cave of Northern Horneo sheltering counties thousands. This cave is jointly and yet alternately used by swift lots and bats, and mammals lodging there by day and the birds by night. The nests nro firmly attached to the walls, many hundreds in a single cavern in remote recesses, where the light never penetrates. They are formed chiefly of mucus, .which is secreted by tho large ealivary elands in the throats of tho birds, and when dry looks like isinglass. Ihe nests of pure mucus are of first quality, and command a high price. These are bound up in packets with strips of rattan, and generally weigh ono catty or ono and one-lhird pounds. A catty averages 40 nests. Nests aro taken, three times a year. Those of second quality are mixed 'with rootlets, grass, etc., often show traces of blood from the efforts of tho birds to produce saliva, and are less valuable than tho first nests. By the time the birds have been twice robbed the supply of saliva seems to give out, and the 'bird quality of nests is composed of sticks and moss cemented together and to the rock with a little saliva. As these are nearly or quito worthless for food, they aro left for the birds to breed in, but"they are usually destroyed at the end of the season to compel tho birds to build fresh white ones. The nests are gathered by men standing on thin rattan ladders fastened to tho ends of long poles wedged against the rocks. Two men stand on tho ladders, one carrying a. lighted candlo fixed to it a few inches below the prongs. By the aid of this light a suitable nest is found and pierced with the prongs, and a slight twist detaches tho nest unbroken nWn tho rock; the spear is then withdrawn until the head is within reach of the second man, who takes the nest nIT the prongs and places it in a pouch carried at tho waist. The nests aro then prepared for market.