490 Mr. F. W. Sty an on the Birds of 



C. pekinensis, but I have never been able to obtain a speci- 

 men in the district.] 



216. MiLVUS MELANOTIS, T. & S. 



(21 .) Very abundant. I am inclined to think an annual 

 migration takes place_, and they certainly shift their quarters. 

 At Shanghai few or none are to be seen in summer, but 

 numbers arrive in September or October and remain all 

 winter. In 1883 the first one I saw return was on October 

 11th ; on the following day a party of twelve appeared, 

 circled over the river for a few minutes, and then disappeared 

 to the S.W. At Chefoo one year throughout August only 

 one or two solitary Kites were about, but on the 29th a 

 large number appeared on the cliffs and shore. At Kiu- 

 kiang they remain throughout the year. 



These birds have certain favourite roosting- places, where 

 they collect for the night. Out of a group of fine old trees 

 at Kiukiang I have put up fully thirty individuals. At Han- 

 kow one night, when passing in a sanpan over the flooded 

 plain among the willows that border the river, I disturbed a 

 score out of two or three adjacent trees, and a few nights 

 later ten of them rose from the same place ; the trees had 

 nothing to distinguish them from hundreds of others grow- 

 ing around. These Kites also congregate on the ledges of 

 the river-cliffs, which they share with Peregrines and 

 Cormorants. 



217. Haliastur INDUS (Bodd.). 



Comes to breed in small numbers at Kiukiang. David 

 found it plentiful in the south of the province. I have also 

 seen it at Hankow. 



Fam. VuLTURiD^. 



218. VULTUR MONACHUS, L. 



(7.) One in the Shanghai Museum was killed on Sha- 

 weishan, at the mouth of the Yangtse ; another at Ningpo. 

 It is said that during the Taiping rebellion, when thousands 

 of dead bodies were lying about the fields^ Vultures were 

 plentiful in the Yangtse Valley, where now they seldom 

 appear. There would be no food there for them now. 



