{ Bird's" nest`, or Bird's-nest } (?),
n.1.The nest in which a bird lays
eggs and hatches her young.
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.(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whose cores have been replaced by sugar.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.