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Sydney Porter—Wanderings in the Far East



live on rice, well, it just doesn’t, that’s all. The strange thing is that

most shops sell various foods for birds imported from China, including

very fine dried flies which are really small water beetles ; one can also

buy all manner of seed though, strange to say, not sunflower seed,

though the best I ever saw was in China, the kernels are so large and

nutty that it is used as a kind of hors d’ceuvres, with pumpkin seeds

before a meal. Consequently one never sees such birds as Pittas, Chats,

or the small “ Softbills ”, even such birds as Lories and Hanging

Parrots gradually languish and die. There were few rarities, and most

of the birds I purchased from the shops were more or less bought more

out of pity than anything else. There were the inevitable cages with

their thousands of Java Sparrows, every perch filled with birds, hundreds

on the floor and still more clinging to the wire sides unable to get a

footing anywhere else, in fact all that one usually sees is a solid wall

of breasts and pink feet as it is impossible to see into the cage. Various

species of Munias or Mannakins are also treated thus. Parrots, no

matter of what size or species, are chained with a heavy wire to a

cumbersome bamboo perch usually only a few inches long. Unfor¬

tunately in many cases thick wire is tightly bound round the unfor¬

tunate creature’s leg so that in time the flesh is chafed away and the

wire rubs on the bare bone. I bought out of pity several of the lovely

Malayan Blue-rumped Dwarf Parrots (Psittinus cyanurus), whose legs

were almost severed by this means of attachment. I never saw Parrots

looking so pathetic. A little larger than Masked Lovebirds, these

wretched birds were chained to bamboo perches about 4 inches long,

which in turn was stuck into a short but thick piece of bamboo, the

top of which, cut just above the joint, served as a cup for the dried rice

upon which these birds were fed. The birds, not being used to captivity,

fluttered as soon as anyone passed and were left most of the time

hanging by one leg to the perch. I never saw any bird looking so sorry

for itself. They looked singularly unattractive in their dull juvenile

plumage, which is dull green, the wing feathers edged with yellow. But

when they have assumed the adult plumage they are very attractive

indeed. The male has the entire head a pale silvery blue, the upper

back sooty black and the lower back and rump violet blue, the wing

feathers are green edged with bright yellow, and under the wings



