Birds. 8811 



eggs of the night heron were the largest and greenest ; those of the 

 yellowhead pale bluish, almost white, and finer grained ; those of the 

 egret smallest and bluish green. I have seen many heronries in dif- 

 ferent parts of China and Formosa, but none that 1 ever saw were so 

 large or so excitingly interesting as the one on the Tamsuy river. It 

 was a sight not easily to be forgotten. 



165. Gallicrex cristatus. 



166. Porzana fusca, L. 



167. Gallinula phcenicura. 



168. G. chloropus, L. 



169. Rallus striatus, L. 



170. Larus crassirostris, Vieill. ; Bp. Consp. p. 212. 



171. L. niveus, Pall. 



172. L. cachinnans, Pall. 



173. Chroicocephalus Kittlitzii, Bruch. 



174. C. ridibundus, L. 



175. Hydrochelidon indica, Steph. 



176. Sternula sinensis, Gmel. 



177. S. minuta, L. 



178. Sterna cristata, Steph. 



179. S. caspia, Lath. 



180. Anoiis stolidus, L. 



181. Diomedea brachyura, Temm. The albatross on wing is never 

 figured correctly. When flying the wings are curved like the head of 

 a pickaxe, and it skims the surface, rising and falling with every trough 

 of the sea, with scarce any motion perceptible in the wings, except at 

 their tips. They often sail upwards, and continue in their flight, 

 throwing first one shoulder forward and then the other. In the male 

 of this albatross the bronchi, on leaving the trachea, bulge consider- 

 ably as they run horizontally, then contract and bend forwards and 

 downwards, and lastly, turning sharp round, rise upwards and bulge 

 again before entering the lungs. In the female they are short and 

 simple, without convolutions. 



182. D. nigripes, Aud. Orn. Biog. 1839, p. 327. 1 kept four of this 

 species, and two of the Diomedea brachyura, alive for some days in 

 my verandah at Amoy, but could not get them to feed. The first 

 few days they used to walk about in a clumsy manner, but afterwards 

 they got weaker and could not manage to rise. Both species had a 

 common habit of stretching the neck and raising the bill upwards, 

 uttering at the same time a loud, hollow-sounded, moaning bellow, as 

 of some animal in pain. The production of this sound seemed to 



