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THE BIRDS OF YUNNAN. 

 By COLLINGWOOD INGRAM. 



iKTKODUCriON. 



IN the summer of 1910 Mr. Alan Owston sent a Japanese collector to Sontheni 

 Yunnan, S.W. ('Iiina. It seems that this man {,'ot together a fairly large 

 and representative collection of birds' skins, bnt, unfortunately, the majority 

 of these fell into dishonest hands and only a small proportion reached their 

 dghtful owner. The few hundred specimens received by Mr. Owston — and 

 afterwards generously jilaced at my disposal — form tlie nuclens of the present 

 paper. These birds, with Mr. Rothschild's kind permission, I have named and 

 compared at the Tring Zoological Museum, where this collection is now placed. 



With the idea of making the list of the birds of this province as complete 

 and as useful as jiossible, I have decided to add all the species met with by 

 previous collectors. In tliis work I have been materially assisted by Mr. Wells, 

 of the Natural History Museum ; iu fact, he is largely responsible for the data 

 relating to Colonel llippon's skins and for the naming of many of his specimens, 

 all of which are now preserved in the National (Collection. Other birds have 

 been included on the authority of the following vtriters : Dr. J. Anderson (Zoo- 

 logical Results of the two Expeditions to Western Viainan : Aves, London, 1878) ; 

 Mr. Ogilvie-Grant (" On the Birds collected by Capt. A. W. S. Wingate in South 

 China," Ibis, 19U0, pp. 573 et seq.); and finally, M. E. Oustalet {Bulletin du, 

 Museum d'Histoire Nuturelle, Paris, 1896, 1897, 1898 ; and Noucelles Archives du. 

 Museum d'Histoire NatureUe, 1901). Unfortunately, Oustalet gives no dates or 

 localities in his short " Note sur les Oiseaux recueillis dans le Yunnan par le 

 Prince Henri d'Orlems, dans le cours de son dernier voyage du Tonkin au.K 

 Indes " {Bull. Mus. Paris, 1896, p. 183). This is much to be regretted, for the 

 Prince did not confine his energies to Yunnan alone. There is, however, 

 little doubt that in the paper cited above Oustalet intends to refer solely to thj 

 species collected in the province under notice, for he adds : " E:i ajoutant ces 90 

 especes aux 11.5 espfeces f|u'And_'rson avait rencontrees precede miuent dans 

 I'onest de la m^me province, nous obtenons un total de 30.5, chiffre dejA con- 

 sidi'rable, mais qui ne represente certainement pas encore la totalite de la taune 

 ornithologique du Yunnan." 



It will be seen that Oustalet's surmise was perfectly correct, and his total 

 of 21)7) has already grown to 352, and it is quite certain that this figure will 

 be further increased when the country becomes more " opened up "' and other 

 collections are brought together. 



But Yunnan is still a comparatively little known land, for not only is it 

 extremely mountainous, and consequently difficult to travel over, but the inhabit- 

 ants in many districts are notoriously hostile and strongly resent any attempt to 

 explore their territory.* In the extreme north-west corner of the province the 

 summits of the ranges are said to rise to 15,000 or 20,000 ft. above the sea-level and 

 the lowest river valleys are 7,000 ft. From here the heights decrease fairly regularly 



* Mr. Owston's collector was very roughly handled, and but narrowly escaped with his life. 



