Shanghai, March 21, 194¢.—There is no doubt that this year is displaying every sign of an early spring and I have already had two or three surprises: I have, for example, already seen and heard that pretty bird the Wryneck. although I have always classified it as an April arrival: then I have been saying that the Swallows are due to arrive on March 22 (t year on March 21 because it is leap year)—yet I found one on March 14, at least a week too early: this single Swallow, seen clearly by a friend and myself, soon found that he had made a mistake and moved off elsewhere, but this does not alter the fact that our weather conditions have been such as to entice a Swallow to arrive at such an early date. But on top of all this I find myself faced with 2 most unusual problem. I have been writing g to explain to her that a so-in her garden which makes weird noises in the night is merely a Whitele; Owlet (the little Owl which makes those hysterical screaming noises in the early morning)... and in the midst of all this a bird comes and sits in one of my trees at 5.15 a.m. and makes weird whistling noises, like a small boy whistling and wobbling a finger in his mouth to make the "woo-woo-woo" noise I believe is supposed to indicate that he is Indian Chief. I have been out on the verandah and seen this bird fy off in the semi-darkness (when the noise immediately ceases) so I have no doubt it is a bird which is responsible: it appeared to me the size ard shape of a Dove, dark in colour and hawklike in flight. It might be a Crested Hill Cuckoo, Ciamator coromandus, but what such a bird is doing here at this time of year I do not know. Perhaps I em losing my grip.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.