SOLVED. Children's book: chinese bird with ring to stop swallowing fish. [s]

[Alyth_mum]

I read this children's book back in late 1960s/early 1970's but suspect it might be one of my mother's childhood books which means it would be 1940's.

The story had 2 birds and a boy in it. The boy's family were fishermen. The birds dived off the end of the boat to catch the fish ... they had a brass ring around their necks to stop them being able to swallow the fish instead they handed them over to the family to sell.
I think 1 of the birds left to have a life of it's own or got left behind somewhere. I think either a bird or the boy was called 'Pong' or 'Ping' but I may be wrong.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Probably The Story About Ping. Published in 1933. Ping is the duck protagonist. I also remember those birds with the rings around their necks so they couldn't swallow fish - I assume that's from this book.

[Hillary]

For sure The Story About Ping - the boy calls all the ducks back to the boat at the end of the day, and one day Ping misses the boat and spends the night outside. He finds the boat again.

[Laina]

Yes, I third The Story About Ping. My toddler and I just returned this one to the library. Ping is a duck and while he is away from his family as Hillary describes, he encounters the fishing birds with the rings around their necks as you remember. Ping is later caught by a fisherman's son, but when the boy realizes his parents intend to cook Ping for dinner, he secretly releases him.

Ping decides the whack on his back that is to be his punishment for being last duck on board his boat is less severe than the outside world, where the ringed birds bear the visible evidence of their slavery and nice looking families eat duck for dinner. :)

[Laura]

I saw the title of this post and thought, "That's got to be The Story About Ping!"

[Alyth_mum]

Thank you - yes that is the book. I suspect it was a late 1030's early 1940s edition we had.