Mr. R. Swinhoe's Ornithological Notes made at Chefoo. 423 



the opposite promontory) , preparatory to their united descent 

 on the mud-flats of Pehtang and Takoo, at the head of the 

 Gulf of Pehchelee. The French misnamed this place Chefoo* 

 after the westward headland of the harbour, which is called 

 Chefoo Head by the Chinese ; but a name once affixed, be 

 it right or wrong, it is not easy to change ; and to the outer 

 world Yentai^ must for ever be Chefoo. To foreign residents 

 in China Chefoo is more than a port of trade ; it is the summer 

 resort of the ladies and their sick lords, and has been hailed as 

 the " Scarborough of China." I owed my incumbency there, 

 in fact, to the state of my health. The government buildings 

 are situate on a hill which forms the right side of the small 

 inner harbour ; on the left you have the long west beach, 

 on the edge of a broad sand- spit, five miles long, ending in an 

 island-like headland, named, as I have before stated, Chefoo 

 Head ; the native town of Yentai clusters in the angle be- 

 tween, with the foreign mercantile settlement on its right 

 side. Below our liill, on the eastward side, stretches the east 

 beach for two miles, finishing with the spur of a range of hills 

 not exceeding 800 feet that closes in our valley and sweeps 

 round to the west beach. The plain to their feet is for the 

 most part under cultivation, and sprinkled with native villages 

 and farmhouses. Hotels and summer residences are mostly 

 at the foot of our hill and on the east beach ; and missionary 

 establishments lie at long distances apart on the hills at the 

 back or among villages. The bay that expands in front of 

 the east beach is protected six miles to seaward by a line of 

 small islands, on the largest of which is a lighthouse, to mark 

 the entrance to the harbour. It at once occurred to me 

 that during the migration-time it would be useful to enUst 

 the good offices of the keeper of the lighthouse to look out 

 with a gun. The keeper, Mr. Campbell, an officer of the 

 Imperial Maritime Customs, goodnaturedly promised his as- 



* Sometimes written Yentai (M. D. 12,082. 9,720) or '' SwaUow-Ter- 

 race," sometimea Yentay (M. D. 12,015. 9,720) or " Smoke-Tower." 



To save the insertion of Chinese characters, which is no easy matter 

 for an English printer, I have adopted the system used by telegi-aphers 

 of Chinese. " M. D." signifies * Morrison's Dictionary,' and the numbers 

 that follow those of the characters in that well-krown work. 



