Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, 6fc. 347 



supplied with them, but the return of warm weather has made the 

 wild fowl scarce. Teal are caught here in nets. Special spots 

 are cleared among the reeds, and the quiet open water exposed 

 in small patches, to which the Teal resort to feed at night. As 

 they fly low to these places, the fowlers suspend loose nets from 

 the tops of bamboo-poles, and at dusk the flocks dash against 

 them, bringing them down and being involved in the meshes. 

 They are thus bagged and brought alive to market. We do 

 not appear to be visited by Geese, Swans, or Pelicans, though 

 during winter most of the other aquatic birds of the Chinese 

 coast occur. In addition to those already noted among the Sand- 

 pipers, I may name the Redshank [Totanus calidris). Snipe 

 are in great abundance, Scolopax gallinago being far more abun- 

 dant than S. stenura; and Rhynchcea sinensis is also pretty 

 numerous. 



The other day half-way up Apes' Hill, on a w^hite patch 

 caused by a heavy land-slip, I observed what I took to be a 

 black tree-stump; but a shining white spot on it excited my 

 wonderment. As we ascended the mass of coralliferous debris, 

 the stump-like object took wing and slowly flapped away amid 

 the hoots and grunts of several monkeys that were sporting on 

 the hill-side. I then saw that it was an adult Imperial Eagle 

 [Aquila heliaca), the white spot being one of the conspicuous 

 shoulder-patches this bird carries in the mature plumage. I 

 fancied afterwards that I saw another of the same species in 

 company with it. A large Eagle-like bird has since been ob- 

 served by a friend of mine here. From his description I took 

 it to be Haliceetus albiciUa ; but it may have been Spizaetus orien- 

 talis, procured before at Tamsuy. Pandion haliaetus is not rare 

 here, and Circus spilonotus (both males and females) pretty com- 

 mon, as also at Amoy at this season. The Kestrel [Tinnunculus 

 japonicus ?] is also common, but I have not succeeded in getting 

 a specimen as yet. The Peregrine Falcon I have observed, and, 

 I think, the Hobby, Merlin, and Sparrow-Hawk, but of these 

 last I cannot be certain. I saw a Buzzard-like bird yesterday 

 wheeling in circles high overhead. The two central feathers of 

 its tail were elongated. I cannot form any speculation as to 

 what it was, for it may have been one of the species with which 



