Xo. r>. — Notes on a Collection of Birds from Yunnan. 

 By Outram Bangs and John C. Phillips. 



The Museum of Comparative Zoology acquired in the autumn of 

 1912 a series of 1,376 bird skins made by a Japanese collector in south- 

 ern Yunnan. This collection appears to represent well the ornis of the 

 region, and contains, as might be expected, a rather large number of 

 undescribed forms. 



Mr. Colling\vood Ingram (Xovitates zoologicae, Dec. 1912, 19, 

 p. 269-310) has published a complete list of the birds thus far recorded 

 from Yunnan. The basis of his work was a small collection, "a few 

 hundred specimens," apparently from the same source as our own, 

 the localities and dates being the same. 



Mr. Ingram's paper mentions from this province 352 species and 

 subspecies, to which we have been able to add seventy-eight, thirteen 

 of which appear not to have been described before. 



The greater part of our collection was made at Mengtsze, near the 

 southern border of the province, from which the other collecting points, 

 Linan Fu, Shi-ping, and Loukouchai are only a short distance a,way, 

 Mengtsze is an important town, and at the present time the new rail- 

 road runs by within a few miles of it. The town is situated on a 

 plateau of red sand or clay, at an elevation of about 4,500 feet. The 

 plain is some twenty by twelve miles in extent, and is bordered by 

 mountains, at a distance of about a day's journey from the town, 

 which run up to 8,000 feet. 



IMr. E. H. Wilson, the well-known botanist and traveller, who has 

 visited ^lengtsze, informs us that the country is a rather poor one, 

 the population having been sadly depleted by the ^Slohammetlan war 

 and by bubonic plague. Forested areas are now to be found only on 

 the higher hills, the Mengtsze plain being entirely denuded of trees 

 and composed largely of grass land. The climate is healthy and 

 comparatively cool for the tropics. There is only a short rainy 

 season in mid-summer and the rest of the year is dry and sunny. The 

 region is fairly well watered and there is some artificial irrigation. 

 Rice, maize, sugar-cane, and sweet potatoes are grown, but agricul- 

 turally the country is not at all a rich one. 



It is probal)le that most of the bird collecting was done in the forest 

 of pine and mixed deciduous trees upon the hills near ^Mengtsze, as 



