Shanghai, March 8—Noticed a Chinese pas ing the house today with two Hawfinches on a stick; the birds were entirely free and flew up to come back and take food from their master's hand. There is nothing new or wonderful about this, but it is always a pleasure to see native birds free instead of caged. And this remind. me that according toʻa recent Home pape many people in England now keep imported birds which are taught to fly free in their grounds and to come back when called. it being obvious that this can be more easily done with birds from far-off places, as they have none of their own kind to fly to. A typical example of one man's collection is stated as a "Hangnest" (from America), a Grey Starling (from Japan), a Blue Magpie (from Formosa) and a Glossy Green Starling (from East Africa): it is interesting to note that, of these, we in Shanghai see the Grey Starling in winter; the Blue Magpie comes as far North as the Yangtsze (and we have specimens in the Jessfield Zoo), while the so-called "Hangnest" is an American equivalent of our Golden Oriole more correctly known in his own country as the Baltimore Oriole: his great trick in this English home is to open a cigarette box, offer a cigarette, and then a match! Actually I can believe anything of this bird who so cleverly hangs his nest below the fork of a bough and lashes it in place with fibres... which habit has earned him in America the popular name of "hangnest." This story from England further states that the
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