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. I learned that they build
and lay four times a year, but I think that they meant that both
the black and the white-nest birds lay twice each. The white kind
build their first nests about March, and the black kind in May, and,
as these nests are all collected before they have time to hatch their
eggs, there are no young birds till later in the year, when the nests
are not disturbed, but the old nests are collected with the new ones
the following year. If the guano could be easily transported to the
coast it would be a paying proposition, but the Government fears that
it might frighten the birds away.
About dusk that evening after we had returned to our hut, I heard a
noise like the whistling of the wind, and, going outside, I saw a truly
wonderful sight, in fact a sight that filled me with amazement.
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