1-16 THE WADING BIRDS OF NORTH CHINA. 



the legs yellow and the eye red. This bird prefers wooded districts, 

 building its nest in low trees. It does its fishing by night, sleeping 

 during the day, hence the name night heron. 



Another group belonging to this order are the ibises, which are 

 represented ni North China by a very beautiful bird, tlie Japanese ibis 

 {Nipponia nippnn). This bird has fine v\iiite plumage, tinged witli a 

 brilliant orange-pink, especially on the under surface of the wings. 

 With its long curved beak, pronounced crest and naked forehead, face 

 and throat, it is a very peculiar looking bird. It makes a great noise, 

 uttering a harsh croalv, even louder than that of the raven. It builds its 

 nest in trees, and feeds chiefly upon large water snails. It is very 

 common along the Wei Valley in Shensi, and I have seen it as tar north 

 as Tai-yuan Fu in Shansi, v^-hile I am told, that it breeds on the banks 

 of the Liac River in j\Ia)ichuria. 



The last member of this order is the spoonbill {Platalca Icucoroclia), 

 so called on account of its peculiarly sliaped bill, which flattens out at 

 the end like a spoon. In colour this bird is pure white and like many 

 others of the order has a pronounced crest. In size it about equals the 

 common heron. I iiave seen large flocks of these birds during the 

 migrating season, and noticed that they assume the V shape formation, 

 so characteristic of aquatic birds in general. They are very shy and 

 keep to the most uninhabited regions, such as the very heart of wild 

 and impassable marshes. 



The next order of wading birds is Fidicdriac which includes the 

 rails, moorhens and coots. Of these the moorliens and coots cannot, 

 strictly speaking, be called waders, for they are expert sx^iminers and 

 spend most of their time on the surface of deoi) water. Even the 

 water rail swims every whit, as much as it wades, so tluit we misht 

 pass over the whole groujj, which in any ease is well enouj^li lino-\^'n. 



There are two sjieeies of crane conunon in Noi'th China, namely, 

 the common crane {(Inia lilfordi) and the demoiselle crane (Aiifliropoides 

 viroo), both of which birds occur in huge flocks. The conunon crane 

 is much the larger, l)eing of a dark ^'rey colour with' handsome tail 

 and wing plumes. It has a naked red crown and a \\-hite band ex- 

 tending down either side of the neck from the e,ye. The demoiselle 

 crane is also of a lu'etty grey colour nu the body with much darker 

 head, neck and breast. It has t\\o wliiie tufts t;ro\viii;j; bacliwai-ds from 

 behind the eye. Tlie tail fuathers are Ioul; aial paintrd. f loth of these 

 species may be seen in great mnnl)ers upon the j\Iongi_ilian Plateau. 



We next have to consider the great order LiinicoJic, which includes 

 the i)lovers, the sand jjijiers, the snipe, the curlews and all the rest of 

 the smaller wadinc; i/irds. 



