OCR Text |
Show 1890.] FROM SOUTH-EASTERN CHINA. 345 the Central Siberian race enjoys a mean temperature at that season of 58° to 62°. The Western race in the Baltic Provinces, and the Eastern race in the valley of the Amoor, which are scarcely distin-gishable, moult in a mean temperature of 65° to 70°, whilst the dark race in South Europe and its prototype in China enjoy a mean temperature of 75° to 80° during the moulting-season. CoCCOTHRAUSTES PERSONATUS. Herr Baun obtained this species at Puching in April. SCOPS GLABRIPES. Herr Baun obtained an example at Puching in December. This is doubtless the species obtained by Mons. de la Touche near Foo-chow (Styan, Ibis, 1887, p. 230) and regarded as Scops elegans. I only know of the existence of five examples of the latter species. The type is in the Philadelphia Museum ; the second example is in the British Museum (and was erroneously described in the Catalogue, vol. ii. p. 56, as Scops japonicus) ; the third is in tbe Educational Museum of Tokio ; the fourth is the Pryer collection ; and the fifth in the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. MICROHIERAX MELANOLEUCUS, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xii. pt. i. p. 179. An example of this beautiful little Hawk was collected by Herr Baun at Shinkow in North Fokien on the 9th of October. It resembles four examples in the British Mnseum from Eastern Assam. Two other examples in the National collection differ in having more or less white at the back of the neck. Three examples collected by Abbe David in the province of Kiang-si and one obtained by Monsieur Heude near Nankin are described as "avec une tache blanche au haut du dos," and on the faith of this character have been regarded as a distinct species under the name of Microheriax chinensis (David, Bull. Soc. Philom. ser. 6, xii. p. 18). The validity of this species must be regarded as very doubtful. CHARADRIUS PLACIDUS. This species winters at Puching. On examining a large collection of birds from a definite locality like the province of Fokien, and comparing them with an equally important collection of birds from Japan, it is impossible not to be surprised at the difference in their general character. In both collections there are many Palaearctic species which are winter visitors, but when these are eliminated it is found that the species breeding in South China and Formosa are for the most part Oriental, whilst those breeding in North China and Japan are mostly Palaearctic. Possibly the best boundary between the two Regions in China, so far as birds are concerned, may be the watershed between the valley of the Hoang-llo and the valley of the Yang-tze-Kiang. |