Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/130

This page needs to be proofread.

during the day may be seen hanging by their feet in their shady haunts.

JAVA SPARROWS.

Siam has a variety of birds—the snow-white rice-bird, the kingfisher, the gay peacock, the pheasant, the parrot, and thieving crows of amazing number and audacity. There are many singing birds, among them a species of thrush that imitates all the sounds he hears. He will imitate the human voice, and bark, mew and crow. There is a small black-and-white bird that sings very sweetly at daybreak. Our domestic fowl is at home in Siamese jungles. Pelicans and other waterfowl abound.

The chief food of the common people is fish. They are found in great variety, and some of them are delicious. The streams so swarm with