258 Mr. R. Swinhoe on the Ornithology of Foochow. 



cineraceus), sitting in stately attitude, with decumbent forked tail, 

 at the ends of the leafless boughs, or making short sweeps into the 

 air and snapping at the passing insect. Now the lofty boughs of 

 this Chinese emblem of longevity stoop to the awakening breeze, 

 and no sound is heard among them save the occasional " sweet " of 

 a solitary Reguloides or the shrieking scream of the Kites, which are 

 pursuing each other and courting in their own clumsy manner jire- 

 paratory to their early nidification. The mournful wail of Boreas 

 through the bending branches is heard loudest of all. There is 

 life yet, though, in the copsewood below; for, see ! a party of lively 

 winter arrivals are twittering and frisking about ^twixt the ground 

 and the bushes. It is easy to observe that they are the common 

 Bunting [Emberiza personata) . Sparrows [Passer montanus) are 

 as noisy as ever on the adjoining wall; and the little Sailor Bird 

 {Orthotomus phyllorapheus) cheers up his matewith hiswell-known 

 loud note, as the contented pair thread their way through the 

 close bents of the long coarse grass. Surely that lively little 

 brown bird I have met before ! It looks like a Chat as it flits 

 away, expanding its reddish tail. Ah yes, it is Pratincola ferrea, 

 for there is its black-tinted male consort ; another and another ; 

 surely, quite a party of them. They are late in their migrations. 

 The paddy is all cleared away from the fields, and we must not 

 therefore look for many birds in that direction. The large flights 

 of the Yellow-head [Buphus coromandus) have long sped to the 

 south, shorn of the yellow feathers that adorned their heads, 

 which, like the deciduous leaves of autumn, fall when the glowing- 

 season of summer is past, to be renewed again soon as the sap- 

 o'erflowing trees hail the arrival of spring with their show of 

 sprouting leaflets. The banyans of the courtyards throughout the 

 city — the scene of their love-making and noisy sparrings during 

 the amorous season of nidification — arc now deserted ; and their 

 congeners, the White Egret {Herodias garzetta), alone return at 

 nightfall, in scattered and diminished parties, to roost and to long 

 for the advent of the pleasant season. A few wandering Ardeolce 

 occasionally rise as the gunner plods wearily through the muddy 

 fallows ; but the handsome Black Heron [Ardetta flavicollis) and 

 the little Chinese Heron {A. sinensis) never greet his eye. The 

 Heron, the Night Heron, and Ardetta cinnamomea have all become 



