AVES. 



BY JOHN E. THAYER AND OUTRAM BANGS. 



This collection of birds numbers 3,135 beautifully prepared skins, belong- 

 ing to 358 species and subspecies. Considering the work that has been done 

 in this region during the last forty years the collection is rich in novelties. In a 

 preliminary paper Descriptions of new birds from central China. Bull. 

 M. C. Z., 1909, 52, p. 139-141, -we have already described eight new forms, 

 and now add one new genus, five new species, and seven new subspecies. 



When Mr. Zappey started it was expected that a Chinaman, perhaps one 

 of the "shooting-men" trained by Mr. Styan, could aid in the collection and 

 preparation of skins, but unfortunately none was available and Mr. Zappey 

 did all the work himself, and deserves the greatest praise for his industry and 

 zeal. 



Specimens of nearly all the species seen were secured. Swans, cranes, 

 and storks were now and then observed but were too shy to be shot with a 

 gun, and were most frequently in places where it was too dangerous to use a 

 rifle. The Solitary snipe, Gallinago solitaria, was seen on two occasions, one 

 being shot near Ichang the first year, but its condition was such that it could 

 not be preserved, and another flushed in the high grass lands of western Sze- 

 chwan when with a rifle Mr. Zappey was stalking sheep. Another bird, a green 

 pigeon, was seen twice, but was not taken. A flock of six or eight of these were 

 feeding in the low shrubbery at a great altitude in the mountains of western 

 Szechwan. They were very tame, but when approached to* within gun-shot 

 distance they were obscured by clouds and when the weather cleared the birds 

 had disappeared. The second flock was seen by Mr. Wilson near the same place 

 but when he was without a gun. 



Time did not allow a visit to the Moupin district so famous, ornithologi- 

 cally, from the work done there by Pere David, while the high mountains about 

 Tachienlu, also a very famous region for birds, proved a great disappointment. 

 The Chinese as they have gradually wrested this country from the Zolo tribes- 

 men have burned the woods, reducing to ashes hundreds of miles of magnificent 

 coniferous forest. This probably accounts for the absence in this collection of 

 several of the species described from this region by Pere David, Oustalet, and 

 others. Of the places visited, one, the Washan mountains, nesds special men- 



