240 Ornithology of Amoy. [No. 3, 



Ornithology of Amoy. — By Kobert Swikhoe, Esq. 



The position of Amoy Island and its relative bearings to the 

 mainland of China may be ascertained from any ordinary map. A 

 few words will therefore suffice to explain the nature of the country 

 in which I have followed my favourite pursuit. This island, the neigh- 

 bouring shore of the mainland, and the banks of both the rivers (the 

 chief one leading to Changchow Foo and the other to Tunggan 

 Hien) are all densely populated, and have remarkably little wood 

 excepting occasional banyans thriving in the midst of villages. The 

 plains are well cultivated and planted for the greater part with rice, 

 maize, sugar-cane, Cucurbitacece, and hemp during summer, and 

 bearded wheat, spinach (Basella rubra), taro, cabbages, and peas during 

 winter. The hills are either composed of granite debris studded with 

 large black blocks of granite and extremely barren, or of clay ; and are 

 covered with small stones and scanty herbage. The character of the 

 country will probably account for the paucity of our resident species 

 among land birds, as compared with the occasional visitants or strag- 

 glers in the same group. 



The water-birds, however, shew a finer list of winter residents, no 

 doubt owing to the suitable feeding-ground afforded them by the large 

 mud-fiat of the Amoy creek, those of several other inlets and creeks 

 into the mainland, and the marshes at the mouth of the rivers. 



In identifying the following birds, Mr. Blyth of Calcutta has 

 rendered me much service, and indeed without his valued aid I 

 could have done little among the non-European forms. I have also 

 to thank Mr. Stevenson of Norwich for the help which he has afforded 

 me ; and Mr. Gr. Schlegel at Amoy, son of Dr. Schlegel of the Leyden 

 Museum, merits my warm thanks for the loan of a copy of the 

 Fauna Japonica, from which work I have gained considerable assist- 

 ance. 



Amoy, 19th November, 1859. 



Ornithology of Amoy. China. 



(Classified according to Dr. J. B. Hay's Catalogue of Genera.) 

 1. Buteo vulgaris, var.japonicus, Temm. andSchleg., Faun. Japon. 



