S. Porter-Wanderings in the Far East



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not to buy ! Our first call was in the bird market proper wliicli com¬

paratively speaking was fairly clean and orderly compared to most

of the places I saw later on. In fact there was not nearly so much dirt

and smell as in many English bird shops. Nearly all the cages stood

on legs and the bottoms were of wire netting, the droppings which fell

through were frequently hosed and washed away during the day.

True, many of the cages were terribly overcrowded, but the birds

seemed fairly tame and not at all frightened by all the noise and bustle.


The principal birds on sale were the two species of doves seen in

almost every bird shop in the East, the small and rather beautiful

Barred Dove ( Geopelia striata) and the larger Malayan Spotted Dove

(Streptopelia chinensis tigrina ). One sees simply hundreds of these

wretched birds crowded into terribly inadequate cages, in fact one

would think that they would be almost suffocated. These birds are

in great demand by the Malayans and I think also by the Chinese

who spend hours studying a cage full before they buy one. In Chasen’s

book, The Birds of Singapore Island, he says, “ The Malays purchase

them for a few cents apiece and carefully regard the legs before buying

a bird. Sometimes a prospective buyer may be seen staring intently

into a wire-fronted cage containing scores of these poor little wretches,

and after quite a long time solemnly point out a huddled-up bird in

the far corner of the cage. The inference being that he had studied

the scales on the toes and decided that the bird is a “ lucky ” one.

Some numbers are lucky, others unlucky, but we have been singularly

unsuccessful in getting Malays to agree on the point, and although

we picked out the older men to interrogate they seemed curiously

at variance as to the amount of the lucky number. . . .Not only is

the number of scales on the toes regarded as of great importance,

but the Malays are very exacting as to the quality of the 6 coo


The bird itself is supposed to protect the house against evil

influences and fire and the owner often demonstrates his affection

for his pet by taking it out with him, cage and all, when he goes for

a walk.


The little Barred Dove is the most commonly kept bird in Malaya,

a large percentage of the houses in the country have a cage or two

containing these doves. The cages exhibit an extraordinary diversity



