198



W. Goodfellow—Familiar Birds of Singapore



place I know where one may be seen is in the Botanical Gardens in the

very early morning or late afternoon, but even there they may require

careful looking for. They are favourite cage-birds of the Chinese, who

lavish great care on them, and even pay big prices for an extra good

songster. They nest in bushes and even in the roofs of houses in the

town, but in the country mangrove swamps seem to be favoured.

The eggs are two in number, blue with brown blotches. They are very

easy birds to hand-rear, and make delightful pets. There are about

a dozen subspecies distributed throughout the Indo-Malayan islands,

and in West Java is one all black except for a white patch on each

wing, and the underside of the outer tail feathers. This race does

not appear to be so pugnacious ; a few years ago I brought home

five cock birds together in one cage in complete harmony all the time,

which would have been impossible with the white-breasted ones. I had

never seen this black one in England before or since, although it may

have been. It is not rare in its native island, and both species are to

be found in the same district. It is said that those from South China

are the best songsters, a smaller bird than those from the Straits.

Malay name “ Murai ”.


Wherever a tree is now left standing, even in the business section

of the city, the harsh call of the White-collared Kingfisher (Halcyon

chloris) is constantly heard, and the bird itself is by no means shy of

being seen. This is another of the birds with a very wide distribution

and many subspecies, in some of which the blue parts are more intense.

Especially numerous around the coasts and mangrove swamps, where

they feed largely on small crabs, but are equally at home in all bungalow

gardens, feeding there on all kinds of insects and cockroaches and even

tree frogs. Their call is one of the first sounds to greet the dawn. They

are easy to rear if taken young, but troublesome if left until they

have grown their feathers, and adult birds are wild and will often

refuse all food, dead or alive. To keep them in health in captivity for

any length of time it is necessary to supply every now and then some

hard-shelled insects to effect a casting, although their main diet may

consist of raw meat. They nest in holes in trees and in old ants’

nests in most gardens. I have seen a nest also in a hole in the wall of

a building. Malay name “ Baja hudang ”.



