149 [Vol. xl. 
volume of Meyer’s beautiful work, first published in 4 vols. 
from ‘1835-1841. I have brought also an early series of 
12 coloured plates of British birds, which appear from a date 
on plate 1 to have been issued in 1736, together with a copy 
of the print from the Gilbert White portrait discovered 
afew years back, a mezzotint portrait of Linnzeus, and a 
photographic portrait of the late Prof. Newton. 
Mr. C. B. Rickert exhibited specimens of Hawking Gear 
from Pekin and a Pigeon Whistle from Foochow, and made 
the following remarks :— 
IT am sorry I am not able to speak from personal experi- 
ence on this subject as I have never been in Pekin, and such 
information as I am able to give is from a letter from a 
friend in the Consular Service, written some twenty years ago 
when he sent me the articles I am now showing. He wrote 
“The hawks chiefly used about here are those of the short- 
winged species, there being next to no demand for falcons. 
In the days of Genghis Khan and his immediate followers, 
the Jer Falcon and Peregrine were in great favour at the 
Imperial Court.” “The sets I am sending are rather 
unusual, being made, as you will see, of beautifully plaited 
hemp; as a general rule, they are made of leather as in 
Kurope.” 
The writer of this letter sent an interesting communication 
on this subject to the ‘The Field,’ of 16th January, 1892, in 
which some of the above sentences occur. The Chinese, I 
think, know nothing of hawking (at any rate, in the South), 
and I fancy it is, or was, mostly indulged in by the Manchus 
and Mongols only. I am showing one set for Gos- and one 
for Sparrow-Hawks which call for no special remarks with 
the exception of the bells, which I am told are attached to 
the two central tail-feathers and not to the leg as in Huro- 
pean falconry. 
I also exhibit an example of the whistle which the Chinese 
at Foochow attach to the tails of theirtame Pigeons. The flat 
piece below the whistle is inserted between the two central 
tail-feathers, which are then tied together with thread to 
