BIKDS COLLECTED IN INNER MONGOLIA, KANSU, AND 

 CHIHLI BY THE NATIONAL GEOGEAPHIC SOCIETY'S 

 CENTRAL-CHINA EXPEDITION UNDER THE DIREC- 

 TION OF F. R. WULSIN 



By J. H. Riley 



Assistant Curator, Division of Birds, United States National Museum 



In 1922, Mr. F. R. Wulsin went to China to conduct an expedition 

 for the National Geographic Society to study the native non-Chinese 

 peoples in the western and central parts of the Republic. Selecting 

 Kansu as the objective of his first expedition, Mr. Wulsin started 

 from Paotow (railhead). Inner Mongolia, March 26th, and went 

 westward along the base of the Lang Shan Mountains, thence turned 

 southward through Alashan and crossed the Holanshan Mountains 

 into the irrigated plain of Ninghsia in northeastern Kansu. He 

 then went westward and south to Lanchowfu, which was used as a 

 base for further explorations of the Province. In late July, he 

 followed up the Sining River to Sining, crossed the border into 

 Tibet, and spent August 13-14 on the southeast corner of Lake 

 Kokonor. Returning then to Sining, he went southward to Labrang 

 and on to Choni and the Min Shan range, which is on the boundary 

 between southwest Kansu and northwest Szechwan. He then 

 returned to Lanchowfu by a more direct route to the eastward and 

 in early October went down the Yellow River to Paotow and back 

 to Peking. 



Mr. Wulsin has furnished the following notes upon the country 

 traversed : 



The first region to be considered in Inner Mongolia was tlie route westward 

 along the base of the Lang Shan range. The region traversed was a plain 

 fairly well watered in its eastern part, desert towards the west. At T'a Shui 

 K'su, the first trading station in Alashan, the drainage basin of the southern 

 Gobi is encountered, and with it a different fauna. A sandy desert extends 

 south to Wang Yeh Fu, an oasis in the Alashan desert, where birds are numer- 

 ous, attracted by the water and the crops. The next region to be considered 

 is the Holanshan Mountains and Kansu. The irrigated plain, which lies 

 between Ninghsia and Chung Wei, on the west bank of the Yellow River, is one 



No. 2838.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 77, Art. 15 

 2600—30 1 ] 



