70 Sydney Porter—Wanderings in the Far East


England. One often sees a Chinese gentleman walking along carrying

a bird cage covered with a closely fitting padded cover. He is taking

his bird out for a walk and when he comes to a low wall or similar

place he will take off the cover, place the bird in the sunshine, talk

tc it, and admire its plumage.


I looked around for Pheasants in the shops, but only saw a single

one, a cock Reeve’s. All the Chinese Pheasants come from remote and

often inaccessible places, except the common Ring-neck, which is

found everywhere, though through the operation of certain European

game dealers who export hundreds of tons of frozen Pheasants every

year, these birds are now diminishing in most parts of China.


I noticed that there were a great many Mandarin Ducks in the

shops at a very low price. I did not purchase any as I had so many

birds and one is able to get these in England.


The strangest and most peculiar little bird which I secured on the

whole of my trip I procured in Shanghai. It was the only one of its

kind I saw there, a Crow-Tit (Scdeorhynchus gularis), a bird at least

four times as large as the Webb’s Crow-Tit and looking not in the least

like it. He was the most comical looking bird I have ever seen, the

sailors on the ship I returned on christened him “ Funny Face ”.

It certainly is funny, something like a miniature Owl’s, with black

beady eyes and a large orange beak very much like a Parrot’s, and

couldn’t he bite ! The face is very flat and narrow, which helps to give

the bird a strange appearance, the feathers of the head are lengthened

and in moments of excitement are raised into a large crest. Its move¬

ments are jerky like those of a mechanical toy. No wonder the scientific

name of the family is Paradoxornithidde.


There were numerous Common and Painted Quail, all in very tiny

cages, also Chinese Bamboo Partridges and the Eastern Red-legged

Partridges.


Plenty of live food can be bought in China even in the winter

time, and it is very varied. One really does not realize what

abject poverty is until one comes to China. Here one sees

a man or woman from the country sitting on a step by the

side of the street in the native city offering for sale a few tiny baskets

of large moth cocoons, a few dozen mantis nests, or a small heap of



