14 COMMON BIRDS OF THE YANGTZE DELTA; 



white. The shape of his head and bill identifies him as a snipe, 

 after which he is most readily named by counting his tail 

 feathers, which should be fourteen, all about the same size. 



The woodcock {Scolopax rusticola) seems to be the only 

 one of the waders which the Chinese have dignified with a 

 common name, but even it is confused with the bamboo 

 chicken found farther south and called tsoh-chi. The 

 snipe are usually called simply siao-chi or little bamboo 

 chicken. The woodcock is a curious bird both in habits and 

 appearance. He feeds in wet marshy places at night, prob- 

 ing in the mud with his long bill for worms. The daytime 

 he spends going wherever his fancy leads him. At Kiangyin 

 his favourite placeseems the sunny sides of the hills amongst 

 the scrub pines, though you may stumble on him in mulberry 

 orchards or most anywhere. He is coloured very much like 

 the snipe except that reddish-brown prevails above, forming 

 bars on the wings, and the back shows numerous black spots; 

 below he is yellowish-brown barred black. The eyes are set 

 so high and so far'back in the head that they give the bird 

 an almost simple look, which is augmented by the slouchy 

 way in which he squats on the ground. When flushed he 

 darts off with a loud "peewit" on a course characteristically 

 erratic and puzzling to the hunter that seeks to bag him. 



Two herons are commonest with us amongst a dozen 

 varieties seen more or less frequently. The Chinese pond- 

 heron or bah-p'iao {Ardeola hacchus) is the most common of 

 all. Throughout the summer he is everywhere where he can 

 find frogs to feed on, in the fields, marshes, or along the can- 

 als. Flying he looks almost pure white and is easily seen, but 

 when he alights he disappears almost as if by magic. His 

 wings, lower back and under parts are pure cream-white, and 

 this is what we see when he flies. The head, neck and upper 

 back are a bronzed-purple, the throat and breastarey ellowish- 

 brown. When he sits with wings folded these are the parts 

 exposed and the colours blend so readily with any back- 

 ground that it is very difficult to see him unless he moves, 

 and he is a master at the art of "freezing", or keeping 

 perfectly still. In the breeding season the adult birds wear 

 a beautiful bronze aigrette of long hairy feathers covering 

 the whole back. The head and neck become bronzed-rufous, 

 shading to purple on the breast. The young birds are rather 

 more brown on the back, and the head and neck are streaked 

 with dark brown and yellow. The other heron most fre- 

 quently seen is the black-crowned night heron or chin tsong. 

 It was a colony of this bird which nested last year in the trees 

 in the Confucian Temple just north of here. He is larger 

 and more heavily built than the pond heron, and his bill is 

 much stouter and distinctly arched. The top of the head is 



