Capt. Blakiston on the Ornithology of Northern Japan. 315 



in length, and the wing 19 inches. The others were young males, 

 and measured 25 inches, and from 18 to 19 inches in the wings. 

 They were nearly all identical, but darker than the female, par- 

 ticularly on the under parts, which were much less rufous. The 

 colour of the cere and feet, being light-blue lead, diflPers from the 

 plate in the ' Fauna Japonica.' 



The occasion of my shooting several of these birds was daring 

 an ornithological excursion which I made, in company with one 

 of the gentlemen of the British Consulate, round the shore of 

 Hakodadi Bay, with the intention of doing something among the 

 shore birds. We commenced soon after we got clear of the town 

 by a terrible hunt after a Kite, which we wounded when flying 

 over our heads. Soon after this we shot a Swallow [Hirundo ja- 

 vanica) which I had not before procured. We then pulled off 

 our boots and socks, and, tucking up our trousers, walked along 

 the sandy beach, generally in the water for the sake of coolness ; 

 for although there was a little breeze from seaward, the August 

 rays of the sun made themselves felt. We were not long un- 

 rewarded ; for, where a small creek emptied itself into the bay, 

 we came upon some Sandpipers, and managed to bag a couple of 

 Temminck's Stints, also Tringa crassirostris, a species, by the 

 way, very like the Knot and the Kentish Plover. We still con- 

 tinued along the beach, and a Black-winged Kite was brought 

 down. No sooner, however, had he fallen than another came 

 over and was dropped upon the sandy shore; then another and 

 another, until, without having moved from where we stood, we 

 had five of these birds on the ground at once. After the 

 slaughter, we set to work to pick up the slain. We had a small 

 Japanese boy with us, who carried my collecting-bag and box ; 

 but as he was already pretty well loaded with our heavy boots 

 and the smaller birds, we made the Kites into a bundle, which I 

 shouldered. It would have done many an ornithologist good to 

 have seen us, trudging homewards without shoes, stockings, or 

 coats, and followed by our faithful "ankow^' (boy). When we 

 reached Kamida, the village previously spoken of, we stopped at 

 a native house of call, where we procured a cup of Japanese tea, 

 and then went off for a bathe in the creek. But our ornitholo- 

 gical adventures had not ended, for we came upon some Ducks 



