34



Sydney Porter—Wanderings in the Far East



are called by the Indians in the Tupi language Tai-assu uird or Pig-birds.

They remain seated sometimes for hours together on low branches in

the shade, and are stimulated to exertion only when attracted by passing

insects.”


These birds are seldom seen in captivity.



WANDERINGS IN THE FAR EAST


{Continued from Vol. I, 1936, jp. 290)


By Sydney Porter


In Hong Kong one gets a first peep at the swarming millions of

China and meets with the traditional smells, poverty, and squalor of

that vast empire. It was hard to realize upon arriving in Hong Kong

that this city is well within the Tropics. Sometimes I was given to under¬

stand the cold is intense, though judging by the amount of tropical

flowers that one sees blooming one would think that the reports were

rather exaggerated. In the city there appeared to be only three bird

shops, two very poor, and the other hardly what one would call “ high

class Here the Java Sparrows of Singapore gave place to Pekin

Bobins, thousands upon thousands of them, cramped in terribly

inadequate cages, though I must say that most of the birds looked in

fairly good condition, which says something for their constitutions.

In the best shop of the three I was glad to find a bird which I had

tried for years to obtain, the exquisite little Eastern Siberian Ruby-

throat, a Robin-like bird resembling a slim edition of the Nightingale

with a white stripe above the eye and a black and white one below ; on

the throat is a bib-like patch of intense ruby-red. This bird is a relative

of the better known Blue-throat. I secured all the dealer had, six in

number, including a semi-albino specimen with the lower parts white

and the upper parts mottled with white, the bib a beautiful salmon

colour. I rather think that the apparent albinism was due to mal¬

nutrition, for after the bird moulted in my aviaries it resumed its normal

colourings, for which I was rather sorry. I found afterwards that it was

foolish to have purchased all my birds in Hong Kong, for I saw many

others in Northern China, where this species is a favourite cage-bird,

and those from the Northern districts would doubtless have been



