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Show 1870.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE ZOOLOGY. 439 " Knife-grinder," also of the south, which sustains one note throughout, sounding like the grinding of a knife on a wheel. A third is smaller, also dark-coloured, with yellow lines on its face, and utters a single bell-like sound, heard often at night as well as in the day. All these three visit the city. It may be that the presence of so many Europeans with guns had driven the birds away ; but in the hill-side woods insects seemed to hold complete sway. In the early morning there were some signs of feathered life, and a few songs were to be heard ; in the noonday no life stirred, you felt choked with heat and deafened with Cicadas; but the evening came on fast, the Hawk and Crow tribes were active, Chukar Partridges might be heard chuckling in the grassy hills above; and as darkness stole on the Goatsucker would start into life, with its continued "chuck-chuck" note, and commence pirouetting over the trees. I shot one of them on the 31st of August: it was moulting its quills ; but I found it to be Caprimulgus jotaka, T. et S., as I had suspected. Its remarkable note, uttered at nightfall and the night through, attracts the notice of every visitor to the hills, and they generally attribute it to an Owl. The Chinese give no help in explaining what the bird is, as they call it the Teay-shoo- pe, or "Bark of the Iron-tree," from its bark-like appearance, I presume, when it lies along a branch at roost during the day. By the end of the first week of September the Goatsuckers had all disappeared. On the 1st of September we went out to look after Partridges. We kept along the plains, and did not see a bird. A Quail or two was all we saw in the game line. The trees were full of Phyllopneuste sylvicultrix, mihi, and P. plumbeitarsus, mihi; and some Reguloides superciliosus (Gmel.) were about. A species of Scorpion was common under stones, attaining a length of 2 inches. It frequently finds its way into houses ; and its sting is poisonous. I was told on good authority that if surrounded by a fire this Scorpion turus its tail up and stings itself in the head, causing death. I was not inquiring enough to try the experiment. I will here insert the few notes I made on specimens procured in the hills. Tchitrea incei, Gould, cS • Length 9*25 ; wing 3*6 ; tail 5*4, central feathers '6 longer than the others ; wing-tip from end of tail 1*1. Bill, legs, and eyelid fine cobalt blue. Inside of mouth greenish yellow. Testis very large. Skull large, with difficulty drawn through the neck. This bird was shot at the end of May, and, from the state of its nasal organs, was prepared to breed ; and yet the long feathers of its tail were not developed as in autumn. On the 7th of September I got a full-plumaged bird of the year. It had the brown bill and feet and light plumage analogous to Tchitrea principalis in the same stage. The cry of the adult bird is loud and chattering, similar to many of the notes of Cyanopica cyana (Pall.). Caccabis chukar, Gray, S • Length 12*25 inches ; wing 5*75 ; tail 3*3, of 12 graduated feathers rounding into a semicircle when ex- |
