Letters, Extracts, Notices, &;c. 471 



Kanrly and tlie country round is magnificent. I made the 

 acquaintance of scores of birds in life^ for the first time ; 

 among them the green Ceylonese Cissa, and Bulbuls 

 innumerable. Arrived at Hongkong, I did not remain 

 long, but went straight up to Shanghai, as the ship had to 

 stay 23 days at Hongkong. I forgot to say I had a pleasant 

 three days at Singapore, and saw a good deal of Mr. 

 Davison, who was just preparing for a great exploring expe- 

 dition to some mountains in the interior of Malacca, 14,000 

 feet high, which have never yet been visited by Europeans. 

 The expedition, a small, but complete one, is a Government 

 affair, consisting of an officer of Engineers, a geologist, 

 botanist, and Davison. Davison had great hopes of many 

 discoveries in the upper ranges of these hitherto untrodden 

 mountains. 



From Shanghai I proceeded in a Chinese steamer toNingpo, 

 where I had a friend. Under his guidance I went up in a 

 canal-boat to the foot of the mountains, 150 miles, ti'avelling 

 in our little boat towed by men night and day. I saw many 

 birds in the district where Swinhoe made his discoveries, 

 and recognized many of his species, but had no gun, and 

 could not collect. But my three weeks in China were 

 thoroughly well spent. 



Returning to my steamer, we had a day at Nagasaki, far 

 more tropical in appearance than Shanghai, though north of 

 it. I should say that near Shanghai is the great Jesuit 

 establishment of Sikawei. Here I found Pere Heude in 

 charge of their museum, which is exclusively local, but had 

 a few rare specimens. He has also a small menagerie. In 

 it were two splendid adult specimens of Haliaetus pelag'icus, 

 one of them without any white — all pure black, which he pro- 

 posed to describe as new. The Haliaeti were both from Kara- 

 tschatka. He had also a wild goat from Mongolia, which he 

 considers new. The Zoological Gardens of Tokio are in their 

 infancy — tigers, leopards, bears, elephants, but the most 

 popular curiosity is two sheep from England. The Tokio Uni- 

 versity is a splendid outline, only partially filled in, but the 

 Museum, under Dr. Ijima, is most creditable and starting on 



