88 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. VI. 
have had opportunities of inspecting them and their 
operations in many other parts of China, more particu- 
larly in the country between the towns of Hang-chow- 
foo and Shanghae. I also saw great numbers of them 
on the river Min, near Foo-chow-foo. I was most 
anxious to get some living specimens, that I might take 
them home to England. Having great difficulty in 
inducing the Chinese to part with them, or, indeed, to 
speak at all on the subject, when I met them in the 
country, owing to our place of meeting being generally 
in those parts of the interior where the English are never 
seen, I applied to Her Majesty's Consul at Shanghae 
(Captain Balfour), who very kindly sent one of the Chi- 
nese connected with the consulate into the country, and 
procured two pairs for me. The difficulty now was to 
provide food for them on the voyage from Shanghae to 
Hong-kong. We procured a large quantity of live eels, 
this being a principal part of their food, and put them 
into a jar of mud and fresh water. These they ate in a 
most voracious manner, swallowing them whole, and in 
many instances vomiting them afterwards. If one bird 
was unlucky enough to vomit his eel, he was fortunate 
indeed if he caught it again, for another, as voracious as 
himself, would instantly seize it, and swallow it in a 
moment. Often they would fight stoutly for the fish, 
and then it either became the property of one, or, as 
often happened, their sharp bills divided the prey, and 
each ran off and devoured the half which fell to his 
share. During the passage down we encountered a 
heavy gale at sea, and, as the vessel was one of those 
small clipper schooners, she pitched and rolled very 
