ABOUT THE GARRULAX. 
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his wings and assume the most remarkable positions when any person 
stroked his feathers. A good singer, he was very skilful in imitating 
the notes of other birds. 
His mode of taking his food was suflSciently curious. When a 
piece of meat or any other fragment was given to him, his first "move" 
was to fix it firmly between the bars of his cage. But if he received 
a wasp or bee, he seized it and bit off" the tail before devouring 
it. Large insects he pounded vigorously with his beak. In the same 
way he killed a serpent about a foot long, after which he pierced its 
head, and devoured at one gulp nearly half the body. 
THE CAROLINA DUCa. 
Something must be said about the mandarin duck, which holds in 
the zoological economy of the Old World much the same place as is 
occupied by the Carolina duck in that of the New. The latter is a 
singularly handsome bird, not inferior probably to the swan which 
tempted Leda ; his plumage gleaming with a combination of brilliant 
greens and purples, toned down by brown and white, which, as we so 
often read, must be seen to be appreciated. His movements are as 
graceful as his garb is gracious. And just as much may be said of the 
mandarin duck, which ranges from the north of China and Japan in 
the summer, to the south of China in the winter; and feeds, like his 
Western congener, on grain, the young shoots of water-plants, cei'eals, 
worms, molluscs, and insects. Like the Carolina duck, he occasionally 
perches on old trees. The Chinese look upon him as the symbol of 
