8324 



Birds. 



playmate had been taken. He appeared to forget them in about a 

 week. They still commence every morning with their plaintive cry 

 of distress, though now the third week since their separation. 



I ought to have mentioned, in the first place, that the species in my 

 possession is Dromius irroratus. 



W. Bennett. 



Brockhara Lodge, Betchworth, 

 November 15, 1862. 



Zoology of Sakhalia Island. — In ' The Russians on the Amur, &c.' by E. G. 

 Ravenstein, F.R.G.S. (1861), p. 269 et seq., a letter is cited giving an account of 

 Schrenk's journey to Sakhalia Island.* It is remarked that the " Tymy is a rather 

 considerable river, which runs towards the north-east, through a wide valley, and before 

 entering the sea of Okhotsk penetrates through the mountains of the east coast. The 

 study of nature in this valley, as far as the season would permit, was not a little inte- 

 resting to me. On the 15th ol January the temperature of the water was 33°12' Fahr. 

 The river affords a refuge for numerous kinds of ducks and other birds, Anas boschas, 

 Fuligula cristata, Cinclus Pallasii, &c. On the rocks which bound its banks it is uot 

 rare to meet with a very large eagle, Haliaeetus pelagicus, the symmetrical feathers of 

 which furnish to the inhabitants an article of a very advantageous commerce with the 

 Japanese. .* * * The geographical distribution of animals accords with that of 

 the trees. This island, in fact, or at all events its northern portions, may be included 

 in the same zone with the mouth of the Amur and the nearest coast of the Okhotsk 

 Sea. We find besides the reindeer, the common stag (Cervus Elaphus)\, the roe,J elk 

 and musk ox, which inhabit the depths of the thickest forests in the interior. There 

 is still in Sakhalia a wandering tribe who keep reindeer, while among the Tungurians 

 that animal has disappeared, and with it the traces of a nomadic life.'' The notice of 

 the musk ox must be a mistake, for this animal does not inhabit forests, but appears 

 to be quite peculiar, at the present epoch, to the arctic " barren grounds " of America, 

 which correspond to the Tundras of Siberia, with physical features similar to those of 

 the interior of Lapland, so forcibly described by Linneus. I have no doubt that the 

 equivalent of" musk animal " has been translated " musk ox," and thai the Moschus 

 moschiferus is intended, for this is a species known to inhabit the Amur territories, 

 and is included as such in Mr. Ravenstein's list ol the Mammalia of that region (p. 3! 6). 

 At page 320 this author notices that the tiger crosses over the Sakhalia. — Edward 

 Blylh; Calcutta, September 17, 1862. 



* For some account of the adventures of Leopold von Schrenk and Charles Max- 

 imowiez, the former of whom directed his especial attention to the animal world, while 

 the latter investigated the Botany of the new territories of the Amur, &c, ou the part 

 of the Russian Government in 1854, see chap. xi. of the same work. 



f Probably Cervus Wallichii. 



\ Capreolus pygargus. 



