The white nest looks something
like pure white gelatine, and is very clean, and has no feathers
in it. The black nest, on the contrary, is plentifully coated with
feathers, and it is, in consequence, not worth nearly as much as the
white nest. The nests are made from the saliva of the birds. Both
are very plain coloured birds; an ordinary swallow is brilliant in
comparison. This is unusual in a country so full of brilliant-plumaged
birds as Borneo is; but, as they spend most of their lives in the
depths of these sombre caves, I suppose it is only natural that their
plumage should be obscure and plain. These birds'-nest caves are found
all over Borneo and the Malay Peninsula, and also in Java and other
parts of the Malay archipelago, but these are by far the largest. The
revenue from these caves alone brings the Government a very large
sum. By far the greatest number of these nests are sent to China,
where birds'-nest soup is an expensive luxury. The natives of Borneo
do not eat them. For myself, I found the soup rather tasteless.
We were told that if they missed one season's nest collecting, most
of the birds would forsake these caves, possibly because there would
be so little room for them to build again.
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