372 



CHINA. 



hole with it. The description of the figures at the margin 

 runs : " The Bird and the Rat live together in the same hole. 

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

 Wai Une, where they may still be seen." 



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

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

 tung-heiie, or that of the Bird and the Rat 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 Rat is the Ground Squirrel {Spermophilus 

 7>iongolicus), and the bird must be an Owl, which is associated 

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

 America with the Prairie Dog and also the Ground Squirrel of 

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



THE BIRD AND THE KAT LIVING TOGETHER IN THE SAME HOLE. 



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. R. Bowdler Sharpe, however, tells me that 

 a small owl, Carine phimipes, exists in Northern China, which 

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

 the same curious habit of association with a Rodent as the 

 American Ground Owl. If so, the fact is very remarkable.t 



Meangis Islands, February 10th, 1875. — The ship left Hong 

 Kong on January 6th, 1875, and after visiting various ports in 

 the Philippine Group as already noted, lay on February loth 



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

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



t An account of Chinese Zoology is given in the " Preussischer 

 Expedition nach Ostasien," Zoologie, Bd. I. s. 169, " Ueber die Thierkunde 

 der Chinesen und unsere Kenntniss chinesischer Thiere," 



