Sydney Porter—Wanderings in the Far East



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a flock following a Chinese farmer about as he worked in the fields,

more after the manner of hounds than birds, and if a bird found an

edible root it would stop, quickly dig it up with its stout beak and eat

it, and then rash off at full speed to catch the farmer up.


Now that the export of the feathers to America and Europe is

prohibited, and they are not used as formerly for the decoration of the

hats of the Mandarins or the stiffening purposes in cloth through a

■substitute having been found, the birds are not as extensively

domesticated as formerly. There were a fine lot of these birds in

Shanghai, and I secured only one female as I had an odd cock at home.

This bird was a great favourite. We called her “ Emma ”, and though

.a wild-caught bird she was perfectly tame. I had her on board for a

long time, but unfortunately the heat in Johore, where I stayed for

.a time, seemed to affect her, and though she was given her liberty she

went into a decline and died. She hated fowls and spent her time during

the day in chasing them. Even at night she took possession of the fowl-

house and refused to let a fowl enter.


Were the virtues of the Crossoptilons better known to aviculturists

I am sure these delightful birds would be more widely kept. No

Pheasants suffer more from being kept in a confined space, yet none

afford greater pleasure to their owner when kept at liberty. Incarcerated

in a small pen, the birds soon get to look very bedraggled and lose the

bloom which one sees in liberty birds. They also seem to bite off, out

of sheer boredom, the long flowing tail plumes which constitute their

•chief glory. In fact, in close captivity one never sees them in their full

beauty—their bright red legs washed in dew on the grass, the glint of

the sun on their iridescent tail feathers, or the pure white of the striking

■elongated ear coverts, which are the characteristic feature of this group

of birds. In a pen or aviary these ear plumes appear grey or a dirty

white, which gives the impression that the bird is not in good health.


At liberty these birds are far tamer and more intelligent than a

•domestic fowl, and they never seem to wander away. They delight in

human companionship, though they hate to be touched or handled,

which, in any case, is a mistake, for their feathers are held very loosely

in the skin and soon come out.


When a human appears on the scene they will inevitably saunter



