No. 6.— Notes on a Collection of Birds from Yunnan. 
By Outram BANGS AND JOHN C. PHILLIPS. 
Tue Museum of Comparative Zoédlogy acquired in the autumn of 
1912 a series of 1,376 bird skins made by a Japanese collector in south- 
ern Yunnan. ‘This collection appears to represent well the ornis of the 
region, and contains, as might be expected, a rather large number of 
undescribed forms. 
Mr. Collingwood Ingram (Novitates zoologicae, Dec. 1912, 19, 
p. 269-310) has published a complete list of the birds thus far recorded 
from Yunnan. ‘The basis of his work was a small collection, “a few 
hundred specimens,” apparently from: the same source as our own, 
the localities and dates being the same. 
Mr. Ingram’s paper mentions from this province 352 species and 
subspecies, to which we have been able to add seventy-eight, thirteen 
_of which appear not to have been described before. 
The greater part of our collection was made at Mengtsze, near the 
| southern border of the province, from which the other collecting points, 
| Linan Fu, Shi-ping, and Loukouchai are only a short distance away. 
| Mengtsze is an important town, and at the present time the new rail- 
road runs by within a few miles of it. The town is situated on a 
| plateau of red sand or clay, at an elevation of about 4,500 feet. The 
‘plain is some twenty by twelve miles in extent, and is bordered by 
‘mountains, at a distance of about a day’s journey from the town, 
‘which run up to 8,000 feet. 
| Mr. E. H. Wilson, the well-known botanist and traveller, who has 
visited Mengtsze, informs us that the country is a rather poor one, 
the population having been sadly depleted by the Mohammedan war 
and by bubonic plague. Forested areas are now to be found only on 
ithe higher hills, the Mengtsze plain being entirely denuded of trees 
and composed largely of grass land. The climate is healthy and 
‘\omparatively cool for the tropics. There is only a short rainy 
season in mid-summer and the rest of the year is dry and sunny. The 
‘egion is fairly well watered and there is some artificial irrigation. 
Rice, maize, sugar-cane, and sweet potatoes are grown, but agricul- 
patty the country is not at all a rich one. 
It is probable that most of the bird collecting was done in the forest 
of pine and mixed deciduous trees upon the hills near Mengtsze, as 
