CHINA. 



4:U 



sometimes apparently ships from which the)' emanate are laden 

 with rum. 



Amongst the rough figures in the Shan Hoi Sing, the small 

 book, from which the illustrations already given are taken, is 

 one of a rat-like animal and a bird which lives in the same hole 

 with it. The description of the figures at the margin runs: 

 " The Bird and the Eat live together in the same hole. They 

 come from the mountain of the tailed rats and birds in AVai 

 Une where they may still be seen." 



THE BIKD AND THE KAT LIVING TOGETHE& IN THE SAME HOLE. 



Professor Legge has pointed out to me a reference in " The 

 Chinese Classics " to the mountain called the Neauou-shoo-tung- 

 heile, or that of the Bird and the Bat in the same hole ; and to a 

 note of his on the subject.* The name of the mountain in " The 

 Classics " certainly dates back as far as 2300 B.C. 



No doubt the Bat is the Ground Squirrel (Spwmophttus 

 mongolicus), and the bird must be an Owl, which is associated 

 with it, just as is the small Ground Owl, Speotyto cunicularia of 

 America with the Prairie Dog, and also the Ground Squirrel of 

 California, in the holes of which, as familiarly known, it lives. 



The genus Speotyto, is, however, peculiar, as far as is known, 

 to America and the West Indies ; and the fact that an Owl lives 

 in the holes of the Asiatic Ground Squirrel is not known to 

 naturalists. Mr. B. Bowdler Sharpe, however, tells me that a 

 small owl, Carine plumipes, exists in Northern China, which 

 lives in holes in the ground. Bossibly this bird has developed 



* Rev. James Legge, D.D., &c. "The Chinese Classics," Vol. III., 

 Pt. III. p. 140. London, Triibner, 1865. 



