20 Capt. H. A. Walton on 



ponds were all frozen hard, and snow lay on the ground for 

 about six weeks. The most unpleasant feature of the climate 

 consists in the very frequent dust-storms and blizzards. These 

 often last for several days at a time and make outdoor work 

 very disagreeable. 



The country from Peking to the sea is quite flat ; to the 

 west of the city, and distant from four to twelve miles, is a 

 range of hills, to which, in ordinary times, the European 

 residents go during the hot weather, and at the foot of 

 which is the Summer Palace. I had hoped to pay a visit to 

 these hills, but circumstances unfortunately prevented me 

 from doing so. 



In the immediate vicinity of Peking there are no rivers of 

 any size. A small stream partly skirts and partly runs 

 through the Hunting Park, and there is a neglected shallow 

 canal between the city and the lakes at the Summer Palace. 

 The Hunting Park is about three miles to the south of the 

 Chinese city. It is all grass-land and there are some small 

 lakes in it. The fact that there are no forests close to 

 Peking accounts for the absence of many birds that one 

 would have expected to meet with. 



The Pekinese are great bird-fanciers. Like the Mussul- 

 man inhabitants of India, with their Partridges and Quails, 

 the Chinese are fond of carrying their birds about out of 

 doors, either in small cages or tethered by a string to a 

 twig. The favourite cage-birds are Calandra Larks, Ruby- 

 throats, Blue-throated Robins, Siskins, and a species of 

 Dryonastes. Some of the birds in my collection were ob- 

 tained from the professional bird-catchers. These men 

 take very large numbers of small birds of all kinds, both 

 with small bow-nets of a very simple design and with bird- 

 lime ; many of their captures are sold for cage-birds, and the 

 remainder, no matter how small the size may be, are eaten. 

 I also purchased a few dead birds — mostly Ducks — in the 

 markets during the winter. The only drawback to the 

 latter method of collecting was that, as most of the birds 

 were frozen hard, possibly some of them had not been obtained 

 in the neighbourhood of Peking, but had been brought from 



