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Show 428 MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE ZOOLOGY. [June 9, backwards soles upward, and shook up and down with every movement of the bird, having apparently no muscular power. Among the wild captives were a pair of m y Porphyrio ccelestis from the Canton neighbourhood, and a Pelican (P. minor, Riipp.) with yellowish bill and legs, which had lived in the aviary for two years or more but still retained the greyish-brown markings to its feathers. It sat for the greater part of the day on a perch, with its head back and its bill on its breast. There was another bird, which interested me most of all; and that was an Ibis said to have been winged on the Canton river. I noticed at once that it was my undetermined friend of Talienwan (Ibis, 1861, p. 261). It was very like Ibis religiosa, having, like it, a purplish-black bill, bare head and neck, the latter not bare to such an extent; entire plumage white, lacking the black tips to the wings and tbe desiccated purple plumes that adorn the back of the other. Its pectoral feathers were long and pointed, like in Herodias garzetta. It was about the size of /. religiosa, and had similar legs. I could not handle the specimen, and cannot, therefore, give measurements. I before supposed the Chinese species to be the Indian representative of the Egyptian sacred fowl I. melanocephala (Linn.) (P. Z. S. 1863, p. 60); but Jerdon's description (B. of I. iii. p. 768) shows that to have black quills. There seems no doubt, therefore, that our species is a novelty ; and I would propose to recognize it as Ibis propinqua. The live specimen in the aviary at Canton, as I have just noted, did not show the peculiar dark decomposed scapulars and tertials of the two allied species, nor did the birds which I saw in Talienwan. On m y way up from Hong Kong to Shanghai, off Video Island (near Shanghai), I saw (15th May) a Black Petrel the size of a Duck, and a small flock of Guillemots. A Swallow followed us for the greater part of the day; and a Lanius lucionensis, Strickl., flew on board. In the grounds of the Shanghai Consulate they have a very fine pair of Grus montignesia, Bp., that have the run of the place. They are very tame and bold, and have lived there many years. I saw them on m y first visit to Shanghai in 1858. In the bird-shops of Shanghai there were plenty of White-eyes (Zosterops erythro-pleurus, mihi), Pihlings (Alauda mongolica, Pall.), and Hwameis (Leucodiopterum sinense, L.)-also numbers of Suthora webbiana, G. R. Gray, caged separately and kept for fighting. The domestic Cormorant was also offered for sale, and the bodies of some small shore birds, from strings of which I was glad to secure AEgialites geoffroyi (Wagler) and AEg. mongolus (Pall.) in full summer plumage. A friend showed me a collection of fossils purchased at Shanghai. He had some fine Orthoceratites obtained from the curiosity-shops ; the Chinese believe them to be natural photographs of pagodas. His collection of fossil teeth were procured at the druggists, where they are sold for mediciue. Shanghai is a great centre for this trade ; and the raw article can be procured here in quantity. In other large towns you can only get the prepared drug in a calcined state. These fossils are called Lungche, or " Dragon's teeth ;" and the idea about them is that in olden time the world consisted of |