22 Lieut. R. E. Vauglian and Staff-Surg. K. H. Jor.es 



The spriug and early summer are, as a rule, very wet, 

 and a rainy winter is by no means unknown. Really cold 

 weather, when it does occur, is usually experienced hi 

 January and February, but does not last long. 



It is, perhaps, rather colder and hotter inland than it is 

 ou the coast, but the difference is not very marked. 

 Typhoons or hurricanes may occur during any month of the 

 year, except, perhaps, in February, but are most frequent 

 during the summer. These storms are extremely violent, 

 cause tremendous destruction of life and property, and 

 often have a marked effect on the migration of birds, and 

 especially on that which occurs along the sea-coast. 



The Chinese of the districts considered are astonishingly 

 ignorant of the native wild birds, in which they contrast 

 strikingly with their fellow-countrymen of the northern 

 ])rovinces. The only exceptions are the few native wild- 

 fowlers to be met with on the river. For the most part, 

 however, the Chinese prefer to trap those birds which are 

 required for food. 



Of cage-birds the Chinese are extraordinarily fond, and 

 some species are brought from great distances inland down 

 the river by junk, and others from distant parts of the 

 coast in steamers, so that it is never at all safe to infer 

 because a bird is seen in a fancier's shop at Hong Kong, 

 Canton, or elsewhere that it was taken in the vicinity. 

 Swiuhoe apparently sometimes fell into this error. Local 

 birds are probablyj as a rule, captured as nestlings, especially 

 CupsycJms saularis and Trochalopterum canorum. 



It is convenient in writing of the birds of this part of 

 China to describe them as summer or winter visitors, or as 

 spring or autumn migrants. It is not pretended that these 

 various distinctions can be rigidly upheld, for some birds 

 are partly resident and ])artly migratory, whilst of otheis, 

 which aie chiefly birds of passage, a few may remain for 

 the Avinter or summer as the case may be. 



By a resident species is meant one which spends the 

 whole year in the district. 



The majority of the birds observed are migrants from the 



