on the Birds of Souih-Eastent China. 23 



Paloearctic region, ou their spring and autumn passages, 

 and a very large number of these come also under the head 

 of winter visitors, as would naturally be expected in a district 

 only just inside the Tropic. 



Of resident birds there are a considerable number, and 

 many of these, as, for instance, the VVIiite-eared Bulbuls, 

 are also partly migratory. 



Summer visitors are fewer than those in the other groups, 

 but this, again, is to be expected of a region just within the 

 Tropic. 



The general character of the resident portion of the 

 avifauna and of the summer visitors is of the same 

 type as that of north-eastern India, Burma, and the 

 Himalayas. 



The birds of this region, as might be expected, shew a 

 great affiuity to, and in many cases are identical with, those 

 of Fokien Province of the lower Yangtze, which have been 

 so thoroughly and excellently worked out by Messrs. Rickett, 

 Styan, and La Touche. 



There is no doubt that with further and more exact 

 observations by trained ornithologists the range of many 

 species will be found to be much more extended than it is 

 at present considered to be. 



In this connection it may be said that collections of skins, 

 made often by natives, although of very great value, and, 

 indeed, indispensable in the present state of our knowledge, 

 may undoubtedly give rise to false impressions as to the 

 relative frequency of a species in a given area, or as to the 

 luiture of their occurrence there. The writers have on 

 several occasions, in the earlier stages of their obser- 

 vations, ijeen misled as to the frequency of certain species 

 by exceptional migratory movements and rushes. 



Matters which have become abundantly evident witli 

 prolonged observation are the extraordinary localization and 

 the regular but minute movements of certain resident 

 species in restricted areas — for instance, those of the Chinese 

 Bhickbird {Merula mandarina) at Macao. 



In this part of China no new species were discovered, a 



