Sydney Porter—Wanderings in the Far Fast



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each cage ; where they all go to seems a mystery, for one would think

that the supply greatly exceeded the demand. Evidently they must

be extremely common in the islands or the species could never stand

the continual drain on its numerical strength. A great many birds

are exported to both America and Europe, but I think a great many

are sent to China, where they are sold as gastronomical delicacies under

the heading of “ rice birds


Dyal Birds or Straits Robins ( Copsychus saularis musicus), as they

are locally known, inhabit most of the parks and gardens; they are

very Robin-like in demeanour and are favourite cage-birds, especially

with the Chinese. This bird appears to be much larger than the one

we are familiar with at home which is exported from India. The only

sea birds I saw around the coast of Malaya were the White-fronted

Terns [Sterna albifrons sinensis). These graceful “Sea-Swallows”

skim over the surface of the water, diving every now and then with a

splash as they see some small fish. Graceful as these birds are, their

dive into the water cannot by any stretch of imagination be called

elegant. They seem to more or less throw themselves into the water.

In the mangrove swamps we frequently heard the call of the Whistling

Tree Duck, but we never saw them.


Singapore proved singularly disappointing in its bird-shops. One

hears so much about the bird markets of this city and imagines it a

veritable Eldorado for the aviculturist, one somehow expects to see

all the feathered treasures of the East there, Birds of Paradise, Lories,

Pittas, Pheasants, and many others, but as with many other anticipated

joys the realization is often a sad blow. It was to me (at the time

at least, but not afterwards when I realized how the birds would have

fared), when I found that the main stock-in-trade of most of the bird-

shops consisted mainly of domestic fowls, Ducks, and Java Sparrows !

of course with a sprinkling of other birds. The reason is not hard to

find, for the dealers know little or nothing of the feeding of the birds

and every bird, no matter what its species, is fed on rice in some form

or another. For fowls, Ducks, Parrots, and all other seed-eaters the

ordinary hard paddy rice is given, for frugivorous birds such as Bulbuls,

Mynahs, etc., boiled rice is given, for Lories, Hanging Parrots, etc.,

rice water, mixed with a few drops of condensed milk—if a bird does not



