Birds. 6723 



up with the thrushes' nest of the year before without " cleansing or patching;" their 

 second was a very slim affair, and for their third anything would do. The lady of 

 the house laid out a heavy Vandyke collar on the grass to bleach, which was taken 

 by these birds, and formed at least one-third of their nest. There were but two 

 eggs in this nest, and only one of them hatched. — Comm. by E. Newman. 



Description of the small Chinese Lark. By Robert S win hoe, Esq. 



"Along the sky the music floats, 

 And distant hills resound the notes." 



This little songster, called in Mandarin " Proan Tien-fei," or 

 " flying in mid-heaven," and in the Amoy dialect the " Paw-tewah," 

 is a great favourite among the Chinese, and is generally kept in a 

 high, cylindrically-shaped cage, made of light bamboo wicker-work, 

 with a round, moveable, wooden bottom, fastened to the upper part 

 by pegs ; a small stick projects from the centre of the bottom about 

 six inches, and on it is placed a piece of coral, or other rough sub- 

 stance, for the bird to stand on while singing or shaking his wings ; 

 and the height of the cage enables the bird to jump without fear of 

 striking its head. Besides the usual pots for water, millet, and dried 

 " Notonectae," or " boatflies " (collected and dried purposely for the 

 support of insect-eating birds), a wee bit of a cage is generally 

 attached to the wires outside, into which live grasshoppers are from 

 time to time inserted, and torn out as soon as seen by the bird, and 

 devoured with evident relish. How much better the Chinese style of 

 cage is adapted for the lark than the cage used by fanciers at home, 

 I will leave others to judge. One thing is certain, — the captive, as 

 he hangs in his cage suspended over some shop in the busy throng 

 of men, sings away most merrily, regardless of all that passes below. 



His congener the northern lark (Melanocorypha ?nongolica, Pall.), 

 called the " Pile-ling, 1 ' or " hundred spirits," a bird far more highly 

 prized than our little friend, is kept in a very low-roofed wicker 

 cage, not above three-fourths of a foot high, but having also a circu- 

 lar wooden bottom, with a centre projecting piece, shaped like a 

 small round table, for the bird to stand on. 



The fact of this bird being such a favourite among the Chinese makes 

 us the more wonder how it has been so long neglected by Europeans 

 as not even to have been described or named. When the great natu- 

 ralists at home were chalking down everything that came to them 



