OCR Text |
Show 444 MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE ZOOLOGY. [JuilC 9, of Partridges attracted my comrades ; and I sat down to gaze upon the treeless scene. Something moved to the right, and in an instant a little Squirrel stood on a rock before me, stroking its whiskers with its paws, and glancing at me. In another second, and it was scampering to another rock. I saw several of them, and found it common enough on our return through this pass. It is a ground-species, and seems identical with Tamias striatus (Pall.), which occurs also in Amoorland. The Great Wall at the upper gate of the pass is about 25 feet high by 16 broad, with turrets along it at a distance of every 120 yards; it stretches away along the ridges of the hills, to the right and left, out of sight. The wall of the enclosure at the gate was in ruins and deserted, and the pavement under the gate broken up. Two miles more of broken road brought us to the almost deserted walled town of Shato, consisting chiefly of bad inns. W e went through it, and put up at an inn of a better class in the suburbs beyond. The country about was desolate-looking, composed of sand and gravel, in which some travellers have found marine shell. Growing out of the side of a cliff was a bushy tree, in which a pair of Choughs had made their roost. They were too shy for us ; but later on our march we got several specimens, and found the species to be the European Fregilus graculus, L. (iris liver brown), called by the Pekinese Ilung-tsuy Yatsze (Red-billed Crow). In the afternoon of the 21 st we reached Hwailai Hien, the hills having receded, and the country become more open and better cultivated. A small river runs to tbe south past this city, and is spanned by what was once a fine bridge of seven arches, leading to a gate in the city-wall. W e dismounted, and walked along the river. We saw a Heron (Ardea cinerea), some Snipe, Golden Plover, and a large flock of Rooks (Corvus pastinator, Gould). Passing a mud-walled city, we continued, along a bad, stony road, to Shaching (or the Three Cities), where the inns were many and excellent. On the way we passed dilapidated towns and the ruins ot limekilns, among which pigeons were breeding in very large numbers in a feral state. We shot several, and found that the reversion was not to the plumage of the Rock-pigeon of the country, Columba rupestris (Bp.) with a white bar to its tail, or to the ashy-rumped bird of India, C. intermedia, Strickland, but to the pure " Rock" of Europe, C. livia(h.). It must be from Europe, then, that the Chinese derived their breed of Pigeons. Iris light yellowish-chestnut. From our last roost to Shaching was reckoned seventeen miles. On leaving Shaching (22nd September) we made for the N.W. corner of the hills on our right; to the left was a cultivated plain, with the Wenbo (river) winding southwards through it, and barren-looking hills beyond. To the north of the walled town of Kerning Yih a hill rises about 2000 feet, with a temple on its top. These hills are very bare of vegetation, covered with broken rock, and yield coal. Notwithstanding their sterility, the Chukar Partridge found them a pleasant retreat, and we were constantly breaking from the line of march to follow the chuckling that burst close above us. Flocks of |