1. (Usually two words): The nest of a bird; spec. the edible nest of certain species of swallow found in the Chinese Sea. Also attrib., as in bird’s-nest soup.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 229. A Schoole-boy … ouerioyed with finding a birds nest.
1760. Goldsm., Cit. W., xcvii. I am for a Chinese dish of bear’s claws and bird’s nests.
1865. Longf., Hiaw., Introd. 25. In the bird’s-nests of the forest.
1864. R. Reid, Glasgow & Env., 354. The [cotton] yarns … were imported in globular balls, pretty similar to a bird’s nest, and got the name of Bird-nest Yarns.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., II. iii. 82. Ideas … as strange to an … Englishman’s brain as bird’s-nest soup to his palate.
2. A cask or similar shelter fixed at the masthead of ships in the Arctic regions to protect the man on the look-out; a crow’s nest.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.
3. A name given to several plants: a. The Wild Carrot (or its concave umbel); b. Monotropa Hypophitys; c. = Bird’s-nest Orchid.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, I. cccxci. Wilde Carrot … The whole tuft is drawne together when the seede is ripe, resembling a birdes nest, whereupon it hath been named of some Birds nest. Ibid., I. cvi. 176. Nidus avis, Birdes nest … hath many tangling rootes platted or crossed one ouer another verie intricately … It is esteemed a degenerate kinde of Orchis.
1848. W. Gardiner, Flora Forfar., 84. Wild Carrot. This is the origin of our garden carrot, and is sometimes called Bird’s nest.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 200. Order. Orchideæ … (Common Bird’s nest).
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, I. xliv. § 12. Monotropa, Bird’s-nest … a saprophyte feeding on decayed vegetable matter.
4. Bird’s-nest fern, a name given to various exotic ferns from their habit of growth; Bird’s-nest Orchid (Neottia Nidus-avis), a plant, wild in Britain, entirely of a brown feuillemort color.
1858. W. Ellis, Visits Madagascar, xi. 285. The large bird’s nest ferns might sometimes be seen at the end of the trunk of a dead tree.
1875. Miss Bird, Sandwich Isl. (1880), 82. The glossy, tropical-looking bird’s-nest fern, or Asplenium Nidus.
1883. Good Words, Dec., 791/1. The Birds’-Nest Orchid wears the livery of withered leaves.
