248 R. F. Tong—Some Notes on Bird Collecting in Southern China


China. The Chinese villages each have an official market day designated

in advance to avoid conflicting days among the villages in a group.

Usually, one village holds a market day once every three or four days.

On this day all the peasants display their wares in open stalls or on

the sides of narrow streets at the market for sale. Potatoes, firewood,

rice, fish, live snakes, clams, preserved eggs, fowls, pigs, beans, fire¬

crackers—practically everything that is grown, caught, or manu¬

factured, is brought to be sold. Some will stay the whole day to sell

a few pennies 5 worth of some commodity, and the next day bring

their supplies to the bazaar scheduled in the next village. Others who

are fortunate to sell all their wares early will then go “ window

shopping 55 (windowless shopping is more accurate), at the other

vendors’, buying whatever necessities are needed.


I visit these markets whenever opportunity affords, looking for

any live gems that may be offered for sale by the bird traders. The visit

to these market places itself is a holiday, and when I find some particular

collection of birds that suits my fancy, my happiness is complete. I

must always bear in mind, however, the important requisite of hiding

my joy until out of sight of the traders or the next time the price will

be doubled.


Live birds offered for sale may be classed in two categories—those

raised by hand from nestlings and those which are trapped. Of the two

I always prefer the former as they are used to human contact and will

be hardy and improve in health once given proper food and environ¬

ment. Many rare birds, however, do not nest in the surrounding country,

but are migrants from the north or south. These are trapped and I

purchase them also. The majority of the birds offered for sale are young

birds, taken from the nest and hand fed. This is because the Chinese

peasant is usually ignorant of bird culture, and unaccustomed food is

given the newly trapped bird, which usually dies of starvation.


With young birds, the Chinese appear to have developed a crude

art in rearing them to adult stage. Birds ranging in size from Thrushes,

Wahmees, and Bulbuls, up to the larger species, are fed on shelled

boiled shrimp and boiled dried silkworms, chopped fine enough to be

swallowed by the fledgelings. The food is dipped into water and fed by

hand or by impaling the piece of shrimp on a thin bamboo stick and



