The skylark singing "thirteen mouths" is a refined point of appreciation in traditional bird-keeping culture

The skylark singing "thirteen mouths" is a saying in the bird-keeping tradition of northern China, referring to a well-trained skylark that can master and sing thirteen different sounds in succession. "Mouth" here is jargon, used to count each call the skylark has learned; the more it learns and the cleaner and more crisp its singing, the higher the grade of the bird.

According to the habits of older generations of bird keepers, the common contents of the thirteen mouths include the noisy chirping of a flock of sparrows, a hen laying an egg, a cat's meow, an eagle's cry, a cricket, a cicada, and other familiar sounds from daily life; the lists of different regional schools are not entirely the same. These sounds must be learned accurately and strung together smoothly, and the whole set must be sung without stumbling before it counts as a good "mouth."

Whether a skylark can open its mouth and how much it can learn has a great deal to do with the bird's sex, constitution and training. Generally, male chicks are chosen and raised from a young age, and are gradually trained through the owner's repeated teaching of the mouths and daily exposure; ordinarily one must also prevent it from learning miscellaneous mouths such as car horns or coughing, and once it picks up a dirty mouth it is often very hard to correct.

Today, enjoying birdsong and taking birds for walks is still a common folk pleasure in some places, but the wild skylark is a wild animal protected by law and may not be captured or traded at will; for appreciation one should choose legal sources and comply with local regulations. For most enthusiasts, understanding the ins and outs of the "thirteen mouths" call is mainly about getting to know this traditional skill, and there is no need to insist that one's own bird sing all thirteen mouths.