Sydney Porter—Wanderings in the Far East



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Of Larks, there were thousands of the Tientsin species or as we know

it here, the Mongolian Lark. This is quite the favourite cage bird in

China owing to its song. In most cases these birds have good sized

round cages, some often four to six feet high with a little round stand

in the middle about six inches high, and from this the bird sings. Most

of the Larks I saw were very tame. I also saw a few of the ordinary

Chinese Larks.


In one shop I saw a cage full of Pallas’s Rose Finches ( Erythrina

rosea), one of the most beautiful of Finches. All the birds were in a

very bad state. Before I left there were only six left and these I purchased.

All these birds were cocks, but later on, strange to say, I saw some hens

in Singapore where they must have been shipped from China ; of these

I purchased several. After the moult these birds lost their brilliant

plumage and became a not unattractive salmon-fawn.


In the shops were many Buntings of sorts including the Yellow-

throated [Emberiza elegans), the Yellow-breasted (E. aureola), the

Chestnut (E. rutila), the Chinese Meadow (E. cioides castaneiceps),

and many others. The Lesser Black-tailed Hawfinch ( Eophona migra-

toria) was very common and the birds were crowded in hundreds into

small cages. There are two species of the Masked Grosbeak [E. per sonata),

one of which is frequently imported into this country, but the other

one about the size of a Thrush is seldom seen here, in fact I have never

come across it mentioned in any book. This latter is a very showy

bird with a huge beak, but really very harmless. I purchased two of

these birds, both cocks, but was unable to get hens. Unfortunately

they were both killed by a Jay in one of my aviaries.


There was a complete absence of any Thrush-like birds except

a single Chinese Blackbird, a bird which differs but slightly from the

European kind. Neither were there any Chats. Most insectivorous

birds, except a very few like the Ruby-throats, seem to be beyond the

scope of the Eastern bird fancier, though a good soft food is made of

dried and powdered insects, but as this is given dry the birds don’t

seem to thrive.


In China there are few if any aviculturists as we understand the

word, and although a great many people keep a bird and sometimes

two, no one seems to have aviaries or keeps many birds as we do in



