146 THE WADING BIRDS OF NORTH CHINA. 



the legs yellow and the eye red. This bird prefers wooded districts, 

 building its nest in low trees. It does its fishing by night, sleeping 

 during the day, hence the name night heron. 



Another group belonging to this order are the ibises, which are 

 represented in North China by a very beautiful bird, the Japanese ibis 

 (Nipponia nippon). This bird has fine white plumage, tinged with a 

 brilliant orange-pink, especially on the under surface of the wings. 

 With its long curved beak, pronounced crest and naked forehead, face 

 and throat, it is a very peculiar looking bird. It makes a great noise, 

 uttering a harsh croak, even louder than that of the raven. It builds its 

 nest in trees, and feeds chiefly upon large water snails. It is very 

 common along the Wei Valley in Shensi, and I have seen it as far north 

 as Tai-yuan Fu in Shansi, while I am told, that it breeds on the banks 

 of the Liao River in Manchuria. 



The last member of this order is the spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), 

 so called on account of its peculiarly shaped bill, which flattens out at 

 the end like a spoon. In colour this bird is pure white and like many 

 others of the order has a pronounced crest. In size it about equals the 

 common heron. I have seen large flocks of these birds during the 

 migrating season, and noticed that they assume the V shape formation, 

 so characteristic of aquatic birds in general. They are very shy and 

 keep to the most uninhabited regions, such as the very heart of wild 

 and impassable marshes. 



The next order of wading birds is Fulicariae which includes the 

 rails, moorhens and coots. Of these the moorhens and coots cannot, 

 strictly speaking, be called waders, for they are expert swimmers and 

 spend most of their time on the surface of deep water. Even the 

 water rail swims every whit as much as it wades, so that we might 

 pass over the whole group, which in any case is well enough known. 



There are two species of crane common in North China, namely, 

 the common crane (Grus lilfordi) and the demoiselle crane (Anthropoides 

 virgo), both of which birds occur in huge flocks. The common crane 

 is much the larger, being of a dark grey colour with' handsome tail 

 and wing plumes. It has a naked red crown and a white band ex- 

 tending down either side of the neck from the eye. The demoiselle 

 crane is also of a pretty grey colour on the body with much darker 

 head, neck and breast. It has two white tufts growing backwards from 

 behind the eye. The tail feathers are long and painted. Both of these 

 species may be seen in great numbers upon the Mongolian Plateau. 



We next have to consider the great order Limicolee, which includes 

 the plovers, the sand pipers, the snipe, the curlews and all the rest of 

 the smaller wading birds. 



