MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: TALKING BLACKBIRDS IN CHINA?

I was rather intrigued by the following in the novel `Peony` by the late American author and Sinophile Pearl S.Buck ( 1892-1973 ). The book, first published in 1948 is about a Jewish family in the Chinese city of Kai`feng,historically a city with a large Jewish population.

David, a key figure in the story has just left a synagogue after a conversation with his father: “ Then he went to the court of the Confucian temple, where every strange and curious sight was to be found, the magicians and the jugglers and the dancing bears and the talking blackbirds; but all these things, which usually gave him joy, now gave him none. “ (1)

Any thoughts?

REQUEST: If anyone has anything of interest from a cryptozoological point of view on turtle and tortoise cryptids worldwide, including the U.K. please can they let me know at flyingsnakepress@hotmail.co.uk ? Other than the Hanoi lake one as that has been well covered already.

Thanks. This is for the 2012 CFZ Yearbook.

NEWS: Anyone living in Derbyshire or Cheshire who joins a library in the former county can join and use the 19th British Library newspaper catalogue - and use it for free from their own computer! Whether they live in Derbyshire or not. I have already found a few “ pearls” already.

DEVO GUT FEELING

Something about the way you taste
Makes me want to clear my throat
There`s a message to your movements
That really gets my goat
I look for silver linings
But you`re rotten to the core
I`ve had just about all I can take
You know I can`t take it no more
Gotta gut feeling…..

Thanks Dad for introducing me to Pearl S.Buck