1903 A Naturalist's Ramble in South China 155 



on the wing, and, if captured, is pretty sure to be in a 

 tattered condition, but they are very easily bred. A native 

 "sportsman " comes up to see our bag, his own consisting 

 of a Koel-bird (Endynamis honorata), the common pigeon 

 here (Turtur chinensis), and a bulbul, or the wings of one, 

 as he is shooting with an old Martini rifle, and shows us a 

 box full of roughly rolled up pellets made from sheet-lead. 

 Each bird has a large hole drilled through it. They will 

 be used for chow, of course, and so would a kite if he shot 

 one. 



But the sun is low in the west now, and we begin our 

 journey homewards, passing a piece of level ground where 

 the soldiers of the local mandarin have been practising with 

 bows and arrows, notwithstanding some of them are armed 

 with ancient Martinis. A Drongo or king-crow (Buchanga 

 atra) is now using the target as a convenient perch to hawk 

 from. We miss the note of one bird, a cuckoo (Cacomantis 

 merulinus), which sings incessantly day and night in early 

 spring and summer. This is the Rain-, Brain-fever-, or 

 Widow-bird, as it is variously termed by Europeans. It 

 has a mournful whistle of three or four long notes and three 

 short ones, which it utters from some tree, in which it will 

 remain a long time if undisturbed. But they have migrated 

 now. 



A thunderstorm is threatening in the distance, and as our 

 way lies by one of the numerous creeks leading from the 

 West River to the sea, we take a sampan. The crew 

 consists of two women and some children, one of which is 

 tied on its mother's back whilst she rows with an oar on one 

 side, the other woman sculling with an oar at the stern. 

 This lop-sided fashion is the usual custom here, and we 

 crawl along till we round a bend of the creek, when a mast 

 is shipped and a sail hoisted — the latter consisting of part of 

 a pair of trousers, ditto coat, and the rest flour-bags of some 

 American firm, with the name conspicuously printed on 

 them. Yellow and brown dragonflies swarm over the 

 water; the Chinese call them "tai-foong" flics, literally big 

 wind, and they are supposed to presage a typhoon by their 

 flight. One of the large pied kingfishers (Cerylc varius), 

 nearly allied to the European black-and-white species, is 



