S. Porter—Wanderings in the Far East



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Out of all the birds I purchased I managed to save about a hundred,

but had I have known what was to happen to them later I would have

released them all then and there. A Chinese carpenter made separate

cages for each bird, and very neat ones they were. Unfortunately the

only honey I could get in Singapore was some cheap Australian, which

must have contained some preservative. This was my undoing, for

in spite of every care I lost about half my birds when about two weeks

out on the homeward voyage, through bow T el trouble caused by the

honey. One after another, though in perfect plumage, they dropped off.

How I hated to have to watch these exquisite little gems fade and die

on my hands. There is something so heartbreaking about seeing a

Sunbird die, more so I think than any other bird. I could have wept

at losing so many of these lovely birds. One can only hope that they

are sucking the nectar from those radiant blossoms which are said to

grow by the shores of the distant elysian shores, “ where the flowers

never fade, but in changing, their magical sweetness renew/’


Of the various species of Flowerpeckers which inhabit Malaya

I only saw one species in a wild state, the Orange-bellied (Dicseum

trigonostigma). These are the world’s smallest birds, except certain

species of the Humming Birds ; an ordinary Wren looks a giant com¬

pared to them. Nearly all are brilliantly coloured and in size are about

3 inches long. I had previous^ kept these birds in England and found

them, very short-lived ; they seemed to die of bowel trouble, no doubt

caused by the honey in their nectar feed. The more I see of the trouble

caused by the indiscriminate use of honey, the more I am convinced

that it is more harmful than beneficial to nectar-feeding birds.


Although so much smaller than the Sunbirds, I found these birds

take about twice as much food as the Sunbirds do. They greatly relish

soft fruit such as sweet grapes and ripe pear. The first of these birds

I purchased in Malaya I found when looking for birds in the market¬

place in Malacca, a dreamy old tropical town which, like its name,

breathes of the romance of distant ages. There were few birds except

the two species of Doves which one sees in nearly every market, a few

Java Sparrows, and in a cage full of Doves were two tiny Flower-

peckers trying to feed upon some bad banana on the bottom of the cage,

and only a few hours from dying. I really did not want them, but I felt



