Birds. 



6727 



I but a moment ago saw a flock alight; and I have never been able 

 to get a glance at them on the ground. On my approach they would 

 spring up, several at a time, uttering the lark note, and rapidly remove 

 to a further part of the field, or would ascend into the sky, and after 

 fluttering round and round come down with quick descent to some 

 chosen spot. They seldom hovered much, as at the season of court- 

 ship they so love to do. 



Varieties of this lark occur with patches of white on various parts 

 of the body. I have an individual alive that has a good deal of white 

 on most of the feathers of the wings and tail ; and a bird formerly in 

 the possession of a Chinese bird-fancying merchant here, but which 

 he subsequently presented to me, is entirely white, with reddish eyes, 

 and pallid beak and legs ; in fact, a perfect albino. 



The name of the lark is one of the few names used by the people 

 here to distinguish birds ; and when a countryman meets you on the 

 hills, returning home with the produce of your morning's chase, with 

 the prying curiosity so habitual to his race he examines the burden 

 in the hands of your game-carrier, and pronounces all the birds of a 

 brown colour — be they pipit, finch, or any other species — to be larks : 

 to him they are all " Paw-tewahs." His first question then is, for what 

 object the foreigner shoots, for the pot ? When told for amusement, 

 he immediately points to a flock of sparrows or a passing crow, and 

 is extremely disgusted with the foreigner's prowess if he does not 

 devote one or other of these luckless creatures to the amusement of 

 the gaping booby. The majority of these questioners go on their 

 way incredulous, and fully persuaded in their own minds that the 

 specimens are intended to satisfy the voracious appetite of the 

 stranger ; for the Amoy Chinaman, more than the rest of mankind, 

 harps on the gratification of his appetite, as may be gathered from the 

 mutual salutation when friend meets friend, " Have you dined ? " is 

 the greeting question ; and the response is, " I have eaten my fill," 

 or " Not yet," as the case may be. I give this as a closing episode to 

 my notes on the lark merely to show that you may look for help in 

 vain from your Chinese friends in ornithological pursuits. The 

 Chinaman cannot understand your object. He quietly laughs to 

 himself, and thinks the indefatigable naturalist a great fool for his 

 pains. 



Robert Swinhoe. 



British Consulate, Amoy, 

 July 1, 1859. 



