Sydney Porter—Wanderings in the Far East 71


wood boring grubs enclosed in willow twigs. These might take him

a week to collect and perhaps if he is lucky he may dispose of them

in the same amount of time for anything up to one dollar (Is. 2d.)

sitting for long hours all day with the temperature well below freezing.


From Shanghai I went to Chinwangtao, a town of incredible dirt

and squalor in the far north of China near the Great Wall. So cold was

it that the harbour was partly frozen in, the ship having to plough its

way through the ice to the wharf. Here I made inquiries regarding

bird shops, the rickshaw boys saying that they knew of one, but on

arrival it was found to be empty. We were taken round to other shops

which had a few birds besides other things. The birds were mainly

Mongolian Larks and a few odd Siskins and Greenfinches. One man

triumphantly brought forth a very poor specimen of a Canary and

informed us that it was a great rarity. We told him that it might be

to him.


There were a great many caged Larks hanging outside the shops

and—I was going to say houses—but the wretched hovels which served

as the homes of the people could hardly go by that name. The Larks

were in very good condition and seemed reconciled to captivity much

more so than the ones seen in England; there is always something very

pathetic about a caged Lark in England, but the Larks there seemed

quite different. One often sees these Larks being carried out for an

airing by their owners, most of the cages being covered with a tight

fitting blue quilted cover which is raised when a suitable situation is

reached. Quite a lot of birds must be kept because I noticed many

cage-maker’s shops about the town.


There were few wild birds of any sort, except Gulls and Sparrows.

I doubt whether anything else could stand the intense cold. I was

surprised to see in the miserably stunted trees around the town, hundreds

of nests of the Azure-winged Magpies though there was no sign of

any of the birds, possibly they had gone further south with the advent

of the cold weather.


At Shanghaikuan, an interesting native city which, though on the

Chinese side of the Manchukuo frontier, was nevertheless filled with

Japanese soldiers, there appeared to be no bird shops, though one saw

many Mongolian Larks hanging outside the various bazaars and houses.



