BIRDS USED FOR SPORT IN CHINA. 449 
sport, which are gentle and docile, and this group I call Oiseaux 
de paix. 
“ Kverything in China is, more than anywhere else, a matter 
of fashion and season. At certain periods of the year you will 
see the air full of stag-beetles. When the season of stag-beetles 
is over there comes in a sort of game which is something like 
what we call ‘le diable,’ in vogue in France at the commence- 
ment of the present century. It is a top with an opening, which 
is held balanced with twine, and then thrown up to a great 
height when it has been set going, and which you try to catch 
in different ways. When the season for ‘le diable’ comes round 
in China everyone provides himself with one of these toys— 
everyone plays at it in the streets and in the houses. 
‘Another game of the season is the promenade of the birds. 
This of all others seems to me extremely curious. At this time 
of year everyone walks with some feathered pet on his hand, 
not perched on the finger nor on the shoulder, but on a little 
erutch, the top of which is wrapped round with linen or cotton, 
so that the bird may not hurt his feet. It has a little leash 
passed round its neck: but it is so tame that it does not try to 
fly away, and remains on the little crutch as if stuffed. The 
Chinese then carry these little crutches from place to place 
through the streets, holding them gravely as one holds a taper ; 
they stop in the streets and in the crossings to greet each other 
and exhibit their captives, and seem as delighted with their little 
crutches as we do to put flowers in our button-holes in spring. 
“There are three birds especially which are used for these 
promenades: the Red-tailed Shrike, Lanius luzionensis, of which 
the Chinese name, U-po-la, means tiger-bird or thrush-tiger, 
doubtless on account of its fierce character and cruel habits. 
They sometimes train these Shrikes to fly at little birds, and the 
Chinese consider them more difficult to train than Falcons. 
Dr. Mollendorf has seen Sparrows taken with Lanius bucephalus ; 
but it is especially for promenading with them on little perches 
that they are tamed. 
“‘ Another species much used in this way is the Chinese Blue 
Magpie with red feet, Urocissa sinensis, which, like all Magpies 
in China, are supposed to bring good luck. Thus they are called 
by the Chinese Hsi-ch’weh, auspicious birds, and Pén-ti'ao says, 
‘They foretell happiness, so they call them birds of joy.’ 
