COMMON BIRDS OF THE YANGTZE DELTA. 5 



common birds, not only having quite a classic repertoire of 

 his own but seeming able to add at will the notes of other 

 birds he hears. The Chinese prize him next to the Mongolian 

 Lark, or pah ling, as a singer, and personally I am inclined to 

 give him first place. 



The spectacled laughing thrush (Dryonastes perspicil- 

 latus), or ya-wo-mi, is a caricature of his more aristocratic 

 cousin. He is dull brownish grey all over, approaching 

 black in the wings and tail, and around each eye and across 

 the forehead he has a broad dark patch from which he has 

 been rather fancifully named spectacled laughing thrush. 

 To say that he laughs requires an equally strong imag- 

 ination, though his harsh strident notes may have some 

 resemblance to a coarse guffaw. He is common in thickets 

 through the country, usually several birds together keeping 

 up an incessant noise, though once he scents danger he is 

 remarkably silent, and can slip through dense undergfowth 

 with a spee4 and stealth that elude all but the closest search. 



Close kin to the thrushes is the Chinese bulbul or hah 

 ■deukoong (Pycnonotus sinensis) perhaps the most typical 

 brrd of our whole section. His song is varied and sweet, but 

 could scarcely j ustif y his name of bulbul, which is the Persian 

 word for nightingale. His characteristic call was well 

 ■described by a lady, formerly of Soochow, as "Let people 

 hear." The top of the head and a spot behind the eyes are 

 white, the rest of the head black, the body is grey with 

 darker wings and tail, and the whole is suffused with a golden 

 yellow tinge. Toward the end of the summer, as the plumage 

 wears, this golden tint becomes less distinct. 



The Chinese very commonly cage this bird, valuing 

 only the males, as the females have little music in them. 

 The sexes are marked exactly alike but they claim to be able 

 to distinguish them by the fact that in the male the nostrils 

 are pierced through fi-om side to side, but not in the female. 

 This difference I have never been able to detect in the 

 specimens I have seen, and doubt it very much. 



These bulbuls are permanent residents, associating in 

 loose flocks in the winter, and scattering in pairs to nest in 

 any suitable shrub or thicket. They are quite fond of the 

 mulberry orchards, and hundreds of the nests are broken up 

 yearly when the first lot of leaves is taken to feed the silk- 

 worms. 



The black naped oriole {Oriolus diffusus) is very notice- 

 able during the summer both for his soft liquid whistle and 

 for the brilliancy of his colouring. The whole body is a 

 beautiful golden yellow with the exception of a black streak 

 from the base of the bill around the back of the neck, and the 

 black quills in the wing and tail. As this is the only large 



