1870.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE ZOOLOGY. 429 
monsters who were incessantly fighting and killing one another, 
until man came on the scene and initiated a more peaceful state of 
things by clearing the country and cultivating it. The monsters 
were large and powerful brutes; and in their teeth and bones existed 
their strength; hence the remains of these ground to powder and 
taken internally must give strength to the weak invalid. For the 
same purpose Tiger’s bones are also in favour. Mr. Kingsmill had 
managed to get together a very nice series. He had also specimens, 
chiefly of fossil plants, of his own collecting. 
At Chefoo, on the 21st of May, all the Gulls I saw about the har- 
bour were Larus melanurus, Temm. et Schleg. 
About Tientsin, on the 25th of May, Swifts were abundant. 
On the 27th I arrived at Peking, and learned, to my great annoy- 
ance, that Pére David had left the same morning for Tientsin on his 
way south. He was bound on a three years’ exploring tour into 
Szechuen, bordering Thibet. I had counted on his assistance in 
working the northern birds, and his departure was a great blow to 
me. I nevertheless lost no time in visiting the Lazarist mission 
called Paitang, near the north-west gate of the Tartar city. The 
priests were very polite and courteous, and led us to the museum; 
but none of them knew any thing about the treasures it contained : 
the soul of the place was gone. We were escorted into a building 
on the left of the cathedral ; and judge of my surprise when I found 
myself in a large room with glass cabinets all round and glass-faced 
tables up and down the middle, as neatly got up as in any museum 
in Europe. Three sides of the room were devoted to birds and 
mammals, the cabinets being divided by horizontal shelves, on which 
were placed specimens elegantly mounted on stands. The fourth, 
or side through which we entered, exhibited astronomical and-other 
instruments, and an assortment of minerals. The tables contained 
Butterflies and Beetles pinned and arranged. The zoological speci- 
mens were for the most part from the neighbourhood of Peking, and 
had been collected by the Pétre Armand David. The zeal and en- 
thusiasm of the Abbé for scientific pursuits must indeed be great to 
have enabled him to accomplish all we saw before us, in a remote 
place like Peking, in the space of four and a half years; and how 
commendable the liberality of a religious mission to give so much 
space, labour, and money for providing a kind of instruction to the 
youths of their school which in England and Europe generally is 
considered of a very secondary and even unnecessary character! I 
trust many of the Chinese pupils will be won over by the attractions 
of the museum to the study of the natural history of their country ; 
but | fear itis avain hope. The priests told us that the natives took 
very little interest in the prepared specimens. I paid during my 
stay in Peking three visits tothe museum. The priests were surprised 
at my coming so often; but I could have spent weeks there to advan- 
tage. All the species that Pére David had collected were not there. 
They told me that he had sent large collections to Paris, and that 
none remained but those here exhibited. How I longed for the worthy 
Proc. Zoou. Soc.—1870, No. XXIX. 
