1870.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE ZOOLOGY. 439 
“‘ Knife-grinder,” also of the south, which sustains one note 
throughout, sounding like the grinding of a knife on a wheel. A 
third is smaller, also dark-coloured, with yellow lines on its face, 
and utters a single bell-like sound, heard often at night as well as in 
the day. All these three visit the city. 
It may be that the presence of so many Europeans with guns had 
driven the birds away ; but in the hill-side woods insects seemed to 
hold complete sway. In the early morning there were some signs of 
feathered life, and a few songs were to be heard ; in the noonday no 
life stirred, you felt choked with heat and deafened with Cicadas ; 
but the evening came on fast, the Hawk and Crow tribes were ac- 
tive, Chukar Partridges might be heard chuckling in the grassy 
hills above; and as darkness stole on the Goatsucker would start 
into life, with its contiued ‘‘chuck-chuck”’ note, and commence 
pirouetting over the trees. I shot one of them on the 31st of 
August : it was moulting its quills; but I foundit to be Caprimulgus 
jotaka, T. et 8., as I had suspected. Its remarkable note, uttered 
at nightfall and the night through, attracts the notice of every visitor 
to the hills, and they generally attribute it to an Owl. The Chinese 
give no help in explaining what the bird is, as they call it the Teay- 
shoo-pe, or “‘ Bark of the Iron-tree,”’ from its bark-like appearance, 
I presume, when it lies along a branch at roost during the day. By 
the end of the first week of September the Goatsuckers had all dis- 
appeared. 
On the Ist of September we went out to look after Partridges. We 
kept along the plains, and did not see a bird. A Quail or two was 
all we saw in the game line. The trees were full of Phyllopneuste 
sylvicultriz, mihi, and P. plumbeitarsus, mihi; and some Reguloides 
superciliosus (Gmel.) were about. A species of Scorpion was com- 
mon under stones, attaining a length of 2 inches. It frequently 
finds its way into houses ; and its sting is poisonous. I was told on 
good authority that if surrounded by a fire this Scorpion turns its 
tail up and stings itself in the head, causing death. I was not in- 
quiring enough to try the experiment. 
I will here insert the few notes I made on specimens procured in 
the hills. 
Tchitrea incei, Gould, ¢. Length 9°25 ; wing 3°6 ; tail 5:4, cen- 
tral feathers *6 longer than the others ; wing-tip from end of tail 1:1. 
Bill, legs, and eyelid fine cobalt blue. Inside of mouth greenish 
yellow. Testis very large. Skull large, with difficulty drawn 
through the neck. This bird was shot at the end of May, and, 
from the state of its nasal organs, was prepared to breed ; and yet the 
long feathers of its tail were not developed as in autumn. On the 
7th of September I got a full-plumaged bird of the year. It had 
the brown bill and feet and light plumage analogous to Tchitrea 
principalis in the same stage. The cry of the adult bird is loud 
and chattering, similar to many of the notes of Cyanopica cyana 
(Pall.). 
Caccabis chukar, Gray, 3. Length 12°25 inches ; wing 5°75 ; tail 
3°3, of 12 graduated feathers rounding into a semicircle when ex- 
