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Fleet-Surgeon I\. H. Jones,



head. But one cannot too much admire the beautiful tail-coverts,

which flow over the back like a mantle, in striking contrast, by their

white colour, with the dark brown plumage of the bird. These

feathers, whose barbs are separate, might easily supplant the so-

called osprey feathers for millinery purposes, and this should be an

incentive for pursuing the domestication of the Eared Pheasant and

“ taming the shrew.”



CHINESE CAGE BIRDS.


By Fleet-Surgeon K. H. Jones, M.B., B.N.


No one can take a stroll in the native quarter of Hong Kong

or in any of the large native cities of China, and not be struck both

by the number of bird-fanciers’ shops, and by the abundance of

cages hanging outside the houses and booths.


We all of us are aware that the Heathen Chinee is peculiar,

and in his bird-fancying he is no less so than in most other ways,

according to Occidental notions.


The Chinese is exceedingly fond of taking his avian friends

for a walk into the country, and often one may meet a middle-class

Celestial strolling along with a small but beautifully-made bamboo

cage balanced on the palm of his outstretched hand, or sitting on

the grass whilst his insectivorous little pet grubs busily for treasures

entomological in the earth exposed by the removal of the bottom of

its cage. In these peculiarities, as in his method of exhibiting single

flowers in solitary vases, it is by no means certain that the man

from Far Cathay suffers by comparison with his Western brother.


Bird-catching must go on to a considerable scale in China, to

judge by the crowds of birds to be found in the bird-shops, and also

by the quantities shipped on board coasting steamers brought to the

south from the north, and sometimes vice-versa. The members of the

crews of the coasting steamers coming down from Taku and other

North China ports have almost always each a private venture in

cage-birds.


Should one chance to travel in a coasting steamer from any

North China port to Hong Kong, one will see on a sunny morning

almost every man of the Chinese crew who is off duty sunning his



