BIRD'S NEST

{ Bird's″ nest′, or Bird's–nest } (�), n. 1. 1. The nest in which a bird lays eggs and hatches her young.
2. 2. (Cookery) The nest of a small swallow (Collocalia nidifica and several allied species), of China and the neighboring countries, which is mixed with soups.
☞ The nests are found in caverns and fissures of cliffs on rocky coasts, and are composed in part of algæ. They are of the size of a goose egg, and in substance resemble isinglass. See Illust. under Edible. 3. 3. (Bot.) An orchideous plant with matted roots, of the genus Neottia (N. nidus-avis).
Bird's-nest pudding, a pudding containing apples whose cores have been replaced by sugar. — Yellow bird's nest, a plant, the Monotropa hypopitys.