AVES. 
By Joun E. THAYER AND OvuTRAM Banas. 
This collection of birds numbers 3,135 beautifully prepared skins, belong- 
ing to 358 species and subspecies. Considering the work that has been done 
in this region during the last forty years the collection is rich in novelties. Ina 
preliminary paper — Descriptions of new birds from central China. Bull. 
M. C. Z., 1909, 52, p. 1389-141,— we have already described eight new forms, 
and now add one new genus, five new species, and seven new subspecies. 
When Mr. Zappey started it was expected that a Chinaman, perhaps one 
of the “‘shooting-men” trained by Mr. Styan, could aid in the collection and 
preparation of skins, but unfortunately none was available and Mr. Zappey 
did all the work himself, and deserves the greatest praise for his industry and 
zeal. 
Specimens of nearly all the species seen were secured. Swans, cranes, 
and storks were now and then observed but were too shy to be shot with a 
gun, and were most frequently in places where it was too dangerous to use a 
rifle. The Solitary snipe, Gallinago solitaria, was seen on two occasions, one 
being shot near Ichang the first year, but its condition was such that it could 
not be preserved, and another flushed in the high grass lands of western Sze- 
chwan when with a rifle Mr. Zappey was stalking sheep. Another bird, a green 
pigeon, was seen twice, but was not taken. A flock of six or eight of these were 
feeding in the low shrubbery at a great altitude in the mountains of western 
Szechwan. They were very tame, but when approached to within gun-shot 
distance they were obscured by clouds and when the weather cleared the birds 
had disappeared. The second flock was seen by Mr. Wilson near the same place 
but when he was without a gun. 
Time did not allow a visit to the Moupin district so famous, ornithologi- 
cally, from the work done there by Pére David, while the high mountains about 
Tachienlu, also a very famous region for birds, proved a great disappointment. 
The Chinese as they have gradually wrested this country from the Zolo tribes- 
_ men have burned the woods, reducing to ashes hundreds of miles of magnificent 
coniferous forest. This probably accounts for the absence in this collection of 
several of the species described from this region by Pére David, Oustalet, and 
others. Of the places visited, one, the Washan mountains, needs special men- 
