£25,000 A YEAR FROM BIRDS’ NESTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2589, 5 June 1923, Page 4

£25,000 A YEAR FROM BIRDS’ NESTS.

Far up in the great limestone eaves of North Borneo are found, glued to the sides in hundreds of thousands, the edible birds’ nests so loved by Chinese epicures for making soup.

The nests are built by a species of cave-hunting swift, which breeds in colonies. They are formed, not as the natives believe, from sea foam, but from a glutinous substance 7>rodueed from the large salivary glands of the birds themselves.

There are two kinds of nests, the white and the black. The white nests are clean and semi-trans-parent, the threads of which are interwoven, being not unlike those of shredded Avlieat cake. The black nests are discoloured and have grass and feathers mixed with them. The black nests predominate but the white, from which the best soup is made, fetch from ten to fifteen times as much as the others.

The bird caves are in reality the interior of hills which in the course of ages have become hollowed into a series* of caverns and chambers many hundreds of feet in height. Overhead are jagged openings through which shafts of light dimly penetrate. Under foot arc deposits of guano often thirty feet deep. The birds share their haunt with myriads of bats; there is a kind of Box and Cox understanding between the two, the birds occupying the caves by night and the bats by day., The right to collect the nests is vested in certain families of natives and is handed down from generation to generation. The collection, which takes place twice a year, is a perilous preceding, and can be undertaken only by skilled men who have been bred to the work.

From a rattan staging stretched across the roof of the cave flimsy rattan ladders, feet in length, arc let down. The collector descends info the gloom armed with a four-pronged spear to which a. lighted candle is attached. Swaying dizzily in mid-air, and clinging with one hand to his frail support, with deft stabs he detaches the nests, which are removed ■from the spear-head by a second man and placed in a basket. Once" collected, tho nests are packed in strips of tree bark and are sold by auction at the nearest Government station. The bidding is made entirely by the Chinese traders, who export the nests to Hong-Kong. The receipts from the auction are usually- divided into three shares, one for the hereditary owners, one for the collectors, and. one for the Government. In a good ye hr the amount realised reaches over £25,000.