Shanghai, March 17—Fishing is now a. recognized sport in Jessfield Park and 1 have found some interest in studying the methods of both "fish and fishermen: "since fishing must lccase by 9 am. the anglers are early on the scene and although there may be divided Jopinions as to the respective virtues of worms jand dough as bait, there is complete unanimity leoncerning the necessity for "something to keep the cold out"....though, again opinions differ as to the exact nature of the said "something." A. Brandy<and-ginger-ale told me that he~ had been fishing sino 420 am. and had caught nothing, but he looked remarkably well and cheerful on the contents of his creel: a Nine Jof-Scotch told me exciting tales of 20 and 30 1b. carp, mentioning "a run of 100 fect" which the fish took before being captured: a Quart-of-beer told me that, in addition to the Common ICarp there were the Black-headed Carp, the ICuiter, the Ide and the. Eel all waiting to be Haken; but a Something-hot-in-asthermos said {that the Ide was more correctly called the Grass Fish, and had been somewhat elusive of late, Having known these ponds since they were swampy pools in the days before Jessfield Park was either born or thought of, T was able to Jdescribe some important. captures of Carp in the "good old days™....and' T have no doubt that the ultimate size "of the fish discussed [would soon have reached gigantic proportions when the Nip-of-Scotch got_a" bite and inded a Mosquito fish; several Park Keepers rushed up to measure it and, finding it 4 ches below the minimum G set by our City Fathers, it was oflcially returned to its native element. The Quart-of-beer eft his two rods to find a bottle-opener, and sport was resumed by all.
Shanghai, March 21, 1910—There is ud doubt that this year is displaying every sign of an early spring and T have already had two or three surprises: I have, for example, already seen and heard that pretty bird the Wryneck [although T have always classified it as an Apt arrival: then T have been saying that the Swal-ows are due to arrive on March 22 (this year on March 21 because it is leap year)—yet T found one on March 14, at Yeast a Week 100 early: this single Swallow, seen clearly by a friend and myself, soon found that hho had made a mistake and moved off else~ where, but this does not alter the fact that our weather conditions have been such as to entice! '8 Swallow to arrive at such an early date. But) on top of all this 1 find myself faced with a most unusual problem, T have been writh to a lady trying to explain to her that a so-called "devil" in her garden which makes weird in the night is merely a Whiteley's Owlet "(ihe lite Owl which makes those hysterical screaming noises in the early mom~ ing)... and. in the midst of all this a bird come: and sils in one of my trees at 5.15 am. and makes wird whiting noise, ko a small boy "whisting and' wobbling a anger in hie mouth to. make. the *Woo-woo-Woo" note I believe Is supposed to indicate tat he is Indian Chief T have been out om the verandah and Soon this bird fy off in" the. semidarkest wen thee Hnifly anson ce live Appeared to me' the size ad shape of Doves doubt it is a bird which is Fesponsibie:
dark in ealoor and haseklige in Mahe Te ght bora Crested Tui Cuckoo, Clanator coromantes, Bue ehat.suehy a bird is doing" ere at ths time of vene T do Hot nove "Perhaps Shanghai Mar, 23.—In these days of national Jeconomy, preserving crops for prosecution. of the war, and whatnot, the old question "has fence more been raised as to whether of not scarecrows actually do scare crows,...and the Janswer seems to be that, on the whole, they ido not; this fits in with my observations very. Well, as T have often seen rooks andi other birds sitting on the shoulder of a. scarecrow and polishing their beaks on its hat. T am. sorry about this because T have an old affection for scarecrows, probably dating back to the time when we find one in our garden and T used hide all my ill-gotten gains in its Pockets 1 found out from simple observation that nobody would think of robbing a scarecrow, and my ttle belongings were as safe in Its old coat as they had been in the Bank of England, But this is beside the point: the question is, how can you keep birds off the crops if labour is searce fand scarecrows are no use? I think the answer Is that you must have something which: move, for birds very soon get used {0 anything which is stationary? a merehanieal device such small windmill, tinkling glass, fluttering paper all such things are more' effective than a siotionary dummy: "it you put up. the old dummy and move it from place to place every, day I will be" more "serviceable, but you must never let the birds get used to it in. tone position, As a practical illustration, 1 can say that when T go down Avenue' Joffre fand meet a lady wearing a dreadful flowerpot bhat stuck on the side of her head, X shy right across the road, but when I have met it two or three times T can walk past, it without even fibbing. And 1 am sure it is just thy same with birds,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.