my dear mother?

_Mrs. B._ No, my dear: I believe I have now told you most of the
important particulars respecting these curious little birds. But I have
an account in my pocket-book, which I extracted from a book I was
reading last week--"Bingley's Animal Biography:" I will read that to
you, if you please. It is respecting a foreign species of _hirundines_,
called the esculent martin.

The children all united in begging to hear this account; upon which Mrs.
Bernard took it from her pocket, and read the following extract:

"The esculent martin is said to less in size than the wren. The bill is
thick; the upper parts of the body brown, and the under parts white. The
tail is forked, and each feather is tipped with white. The legs are
brown.

"The nest of this bird is excessively curious, and composed of such
materials, that it is not only eatable, but is considered one of the
greatest dainties that the Asiatic epicures possess. It generally weighs
about half an ounce, and is, in shape, like half a lemon; or, as some
say, like a saucer with one side flatted, which adheres to the rock. The
texture is somewhat like isinglass, or rather more like fine gum-dragon;
and the several layers of the matter it is composed of, are very
apparent; being fabricated from repeated parcels of a soft slimy
substance, in the same manner as the common martins form theirs of mud.
Authors differ much as to the materials of which it is composed: some
suppose it to consist of sea-worms, of the mollusca kind; others, of a
kind of cuttle-fish, or a glutinous sea-plast called agal-agal. It has
also been supposed, that the swallows rob other birds of their eggs,