34



N. Taka-Tsukasa—Aviculture in Japan



laced Dove are sometimes imported so numerously that they can be

bought at a very low price.


The Japanese bird-lovers are very fond of listening to the cooing

of the Loo-Choo Green Pigeon, which has a very clear purring coo with

many variations, but this bird is delicate and is therefore very scarce,

and commands a high price.


As regards the fancy game birds in Japan the following are found :

The Golden and Silver Pheasants, the Common and Java Peafowls,

Chinese and Formosan Tree-partridges, the Painted and Button Quails,

beside the Japanese Quail, of which I have already written.


We also have the Common Waders and Waterfowls, namely, the

Waterhen, Coot, Grey-headed Gallinule, the Indian Water-rail, Ruddy

Crake, and the Sacred, White-necked, Manchurian, and the Common

Crane, the Mandarin Duck, Teal, Common Wild Ducks, Muscovy

Ducks, the Chinese and White-fronted Goose, and the Whooping and

Black Swan. These birds are kept for the ornamentation of the gardens

and the parks.


( b ) The Soft-food Birds


The Japanese as a rule prefer birds for their song rather than their

coloration, so the art of bird-keeping is chiefly restricted to the keeping

of soft-food birds, though during the last few years the art of bird-

breeding has been advancing rapidly. For feeding purposes the

Japanese use a kind of paste, which is called “Suriye”, for all birds,

even for those that live on insects or berries. I have already written

about the “Suriye” in my previous article on “ Quail-breeding in

Jajian ”, so I will not repeat it here. We can get the materials,

i.e. the mixed powdered food, from the bird fanciers’ shops, with the

implements for mixing the soft food, which consist of a bowl grooved

inside like a coarse file and a hard wooden staff by which it is mashed

into a paste in the bowl.


We call the soft food by different names according to the proportion

or quantity of animal food which it contains; for instance, if the food

contains one-tenth part of vegetable food we call it “ Japan-ye ”, and if

two-tenths part “ Nibu-ye ”, and if the mixture is half and half it is

called “ Dogaishi ”.


Most insectivorous birds are kept on “ Gofun-ye ”, that is in



