Show bird that builds nest used by the chinese for food found in philippines science has finally come to one of the philippines most exotic industries but not with a labor saving device A kind of swift one of whose species is the swift flying small bird that may be seen rising sharply from american chimneys has at last been identified as the bird that makes the edible nests which chinese consider a delicacy but the business of collecting edible birds nests will not see any machinery canuto canute G manuel of the philippine commonwealth fish and game administration indicates in the philippine journal of science for the birds build their nests in all but inaccessible caves which collectors must reach today in precisely the same manner as their forbears by climbing patiently over slippery rocks and deep chasms and once inside the collectors use the same primitive torches to light their way as they maintain a precarious balance while they carefully remove the nests from hollows in the cavern walls the species is prevented from becoming extinct by the fact that many of the birds bird build their nests in caves that are actually inaccessible no estimate of the size of the business which centers at is possible for the local chinese merchants who ship the product to china constitute a closemouthed monopoly reason for their silence is fear of larger licensing fees collecting is done by filipinos who work on their own selling all they take to the corporation each nest weighs less than ten grams about a third of an ounce when removed from the cavern wall and loses a considerable portion of its it weight in the drying process the nests arc gelatinous in nature |