FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



merely recorded in these few words : " The Golden-silk Yuen which is yellow . . . 

 difficult to procure " ? Careful research throughout that island, on the south-west 

 coasts of China, and in the north of Tonkin, alone can settle the question and deter- 

 mine at the same time if this yellow colour is common to both sexes of this (Hbbon, 

 or if there is a sexual dichroism as in the case of other species. 



2. BIRDS 



Note on the Birds collected in ] 'iinnan by Prince Henry of Orleans in the 

 course of his recent Journey from Tonkin to India ' 



By M. E. OusTALET 



From his travels through Tonkin, Viinnan, the independent parts of Upper 

 Burmah, Southern Thibet, and Assam, Prince Henry of Orleans has brought back a 

 large number of birds, which he has generously presented to the Museum ot Natural 

 History. This collection is one of great interest, not only on account of the presence 

 of several new forms, but also for the hitherto unpublished particulars which it 

 furnishes upon the ornithological fauna of Viinnan, of which province the western 

 part alone, in its contiguity to Burmah, had been explored from the zoological point 

 of view by the English naturalist John Anderson in 1868 and 1875. ^he Prince 

 and his companions, on the contrary, traversed the south, the north-west, and the 

 centre of Viinnan, which they entered in the beginning of February 1895 by way of 

 Laokay on the Red River. After first proceeding in a westerly direction by Manhao 

 and Ssumao to the Mekong, they ascended to the north, past Tali-Fou, and with 

 many windings and repeated crossings of the great river arrived at Tsekou on the 

 19th of August. Profiting by an enforced delay of two weeks in this locality, Prince 

 Henry remitted thence to the Museum, as he had already done from Tali-P'ou, a 

 portion of his collections, and obtained with the help of the missionaries stationed at 

 Tsekou new specimens, which are not the least interesting part of the w'hole. Tsekou 

 itself is really situated in Thibetan territory at a comparatively slight distance south 

 of the mission post of Verkalo, whence the Abbe Desgodins had sent the Museum 

 many rare specimens, and of the route from Batang to Tatsien-lou which Prince 

 Henry and M. Bonvalot followed some years ago on their way to Setchuen, along 

 which they made such a fine collection at the time. Tatsien-lou, which, thanks to 

 Mgr. Biet and Fathers Mussot, Soulie, and Dejean, has lately furnished rich 

 ornithological contributions to the Museum, itself forms part of that province of 

 Setchuen where the Abbt^ A. David had made several of his most important 

 discoveries. We are not surprised, therefore, to meet in the series of birds arranged 

 by Prince Henry at Tsekou with many forms of the Upper Mekong, Thibet, and 

 Setchuen that were already familiar in the accumulations of the above-mentioned 

 naturalists. As I have before had occasion to remark, the valley of the Mekong, in 

 the upper part of which Verkalo and Tsekou are situated, constitutes one of the 

 natural outlets by which a part of the ornithological fauna of Thibet and Setchuen 

 finds its way into Viinnan and Indo-China. 



From Tsekou the expedition turning sharp to the west crossed successively the 

 Salwen, the Irawadi, and their affluents, and on the 24th December 1895 reached 

 Sadiya in Assam, where the perilous part of the journey ended. 



During this period of eleven months Prince Henry of Orleans secured nearly 

 200 specimens of birds, the majority of which now figure in the public collection of 

 the Museum. A careful study of these, just completed, shows them to belong to 

 ' E.xtract from the Bulletin du Mushim ifhi'stoire naturelle, 1896, Nos. 5 and 7. 



