444 MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE ZOOLOGY. [June 9, 
of Partridges attracted my comrades; and I sat down to gaze upon 
the treeless scene. Something moved to the right, and in an instant 
a little Squirrel stood on a rock before me, stroking its whiskers 
with its paws, and glancing at me. In another second, and it was 
scampering to another rock. I saw several of them, and found it 
common enough on our return through this pass. It is a ground- 
species, and seems identical with Tamias striatus (Pall.), which 
oceurs also in Amoorland. The Great Wall at the upper gate 
of the pass is about 25 feet high by 16 broad, with turrets along it at 
a distance of every 120 yards; it stretches away along the ridges of 
the hills, to the right and left, out of sight. The wall of the enclosure 
at the gate was in ruins and deserted, and the pavement under 
the gate broken up. Two miles more of broken road brought us 
to the almost deserted walled town of Shato, consisting chiefly of 
bad inns. We went through it, and put up at an inn of a better 
class in the suburbs beyond. The country about was desolate- 
looking, composed of sand and gravel, in which some travellers have 
found marine shell. Growing out of the side of a cliff was a bushy 
tree, in which a pair of Choughs had made their roost. They were 
too shy for us; but later on our march we got several specimens, and 
found the species to be the European Fregilus graculus, L. (iris 
liver brown), called by the Pekinese Hung-tsuy Yatsze (Red-billed 
Crow). 
In oa afternoon of the 21st we reached Hwailai Hien, the hills 
having receded, and the country become more open and better culti- 
vated. A small river runs to the south past this city, and is spanned 
by what was once a fine bridge of seven arches, leading to a gate in 
the city-wall. We dismounted, and walked along the river. We 
saw a Heron (Ardea cinerea), some Snipe, Golden Plover, and a large 
flock of Rooks (Corvus pastinator, Gould). Passing a mud-walled 
city, we continued, along a bad, stony road, to Shaching (or the 
Three Cities), where the inns were many and excellent. On the way 
we passed dilapidated towns and the ruins of limekilns, among which 
pigeons were breeding in very large numbers ina feral state. We 
shot several, and found that the reversion was not to the plumage of 
the Rock-pigeon of the country, Columba rupestris (Bp.) with a 
white bar to its tail, or to the ashy-rumped bird of India, C. inter- 
media, Strickland, but to the pure “‘ Rock” of Europe, C. livia (L.). 
It must be from Europe, then, that the Chinese derived their breed 
of Pigeons. Iris light yellowish-chestnut. From our last roost to 
Shaching was reckoned seventeen miles. 
On leaving Shaching (22nd September) we made for the N.W. 
corner ‘of the hills on our right ; to the left was a cultivated plain, 
with the Wenho (river) winding southwards through it, and barren- 
looking hills beyond. To the north of the walled town of Keming 
Yih a hill rises about 2000 feet, with a temple onitstop. These hills 
are very bare of vegetation, covered with broken rock, and yield coal. 
Notwithstanding their sterility, the Chukar Partridge found them a 
pleasant retreat, and we were constantly breaking from the line of 
match to follow the chuckling that burst close above us. Flocks of 
