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Show 438 MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE ZOOLOGY. [June 9, pekinensis, David). Sitta villosa, Verr., occurred (itself almost a Tit in habits) running along the slender twigs of the trees and hanging about the leaves, fighting and pursuing one another, and at times giving utterance to a lively chatter a good deal like that of Lanius lucionensis, Strickl. I was enabled to get several specimens. The males differ from the females in having a black cap. It has a very close ally in Sitta canadensis, L., of North America. A pair of Ruticilla aurorea (Pall.) had hatched a brood of young in the grounds, and were feeding their spotted fledglings on the stone parapet. The sun was setting, and we were leaving the place annoyed at our bad luck, when an Owl popped out of its roost in the bosom of a tree. I winged it; aud after a hunt we secured a fine specimen of a Wood-owl, which seems to be the Himalayan race Syrnium ni-vicolum, Hodgs.- $. Length 16*5 inches; tail 7*25 ; wing 11*75; wing-tip to end of tail 1 *75. Irides black. Skin round eye yellowish flesh-colour. Bill wax-yellow with tinge of green. Soles of feet yellow; exposed part of toes greenish yellow, as also are the bases of the claws, rest of claws blackish brown. The distance from Changpingchow to the tombs is about nine miles. On the 19th I crossed the hills and paid another visit to H.M. Minister at Lingshansze temple. Several temples stand on higher positions up the hill-side, and many of them were occupied-one by the American legation, another by the Chaplain to the British legation, and others by the secretaries and students also of our legation. These were all attainable by stone steps winding through the ravines and over the hill-sides. The ravines were well planted with trees, of which the chestnut-leafed oak was most in abundance ; its acorns support the Pigs, and the acorn-cups yield a black dye. The Kcel-reuteria flata, Bunge, with its popping pods, was also plentiful, and the Sophora japonica or locust-tree. This last is the commonest tree in the city of Peking, and is sadly infested with a green Measure-worm, which developes into a brownish-mottled moth. The tree bursts into leaf in spring, and in a few weeks stands denuded, every leaf having been eaten by this caterpillar. It shoots again into leaf, and is again stripped. Three efforts are made by the tree in the year, and three times it is robbed of its leaf; and yet the tree is abundant and does not perish. In Boston, U.S., a similar worm is said to make great havoc among the locust-trees of that city; and to put a stop to it the citizens imported the Sparrow (Passer domesticus, L.); but Passer montanus, L., abounds in Peking; yet the Measure-worm multiplies in spite of it. A scented Artemisia spreads everywhere on these hills, scattering a dust-like yellow pollen. A sprig of this is placed in the headgear between the ears of Mules aud Donkeys to keep off the blood-sucking flies that swarm on the backs of the ears of the poor beasts. The plant is twisted by the country people into ropes, which are burned to ward off mosquitoes. In this neighbourhood the commonest Cicada that deafens you is the green one of the south, about an inch and a quarter long. It keeps on crying " Kwai-kwai," & c , for some time, aud then finishes with a prolonged " sze." A second is a large dark-brown species called |
