8274 



Birds. 



ducks and teal conceal themselves in quiet till the shades of evening 

 remind them of their w onted habit to visit some distant feeding-ground. 

 Then, again, glancing towards the rocky shore, cormorants in numbers 

 may be seen perched on the ledges of the cliffs, which have become 

 whitened from their constant occupation. Swallows are skimming 

 over the ponds, or dipping in the brook-like streams which course the 

 lower lands and abound in excellent trout and other fish. A shrike 

 perched on a topmost branch awaits the coming of some choice kind 

 of winged insect, which his eagle eye detects from afar. 



[After noticing the occurrence of Falco peregrinus, Accipiter nisus 

 and a supposed new buzzard, Captain Blakiston proceeds as follows]. 



Milvus melanotis. A single specimen of the black-winged kite 

 w 7 as selected from among a number killed. It was a female, and 

 measured 26^ inches in length, and the wing 19 inches. The others 

 were young males, and measured 25 inches, and from 18 to 19 inches 

 in the wings. They were nearly all identical, but darker than the 

 female, particularly on the under parts, w T hich were much less rufous. 

 The colour of the cere and feet, being light blue lead, differs from the 

 plate in the ' Fauna Japonica.' 



The occasion of my shooting several of these birds was during an 

 ornithological excursion which I made, in company with one of the 

 gentlemen of the British Consulate, round the shore of Hakodadi Bay, 

 with the intention of doing something among the shore birds. We 

 commenced soon after w T e got clear of the town by a terrible hunt 

 after a kite, which we wounded when flying over our heads. Soon 

 after this we shot a swallow [Hirundo javanica) which I had not 

 before procured. We then pulled off our boots and socks, and tucking 

 up our trousers walked along the sandy beach, generally in the water 

 for the sake of coolness ; for although there w r as a little breeze from 

 seaward the August rays of the sun made themselves felt. We were 

 not long unrewarded ; for where a small creek emptied itself into the 

 bay we came upon some sandpipers, and managed to bag a couple of 

 Temminck's stints, also Tringa crassirostris, a species, by the way, 

 very like the knot and the Kentish plover. We still continued along 

 the beach, and a blackwinged kite was brought down. No sooner, 

 however, had he fallen than another came over and was dropped upon 

 the sandy shore ; then another and another, until, without having 

 moved from where we stood, we had five of these birds on the ground 

 at once. After the slaughter we set to work to pick up the slain. We 

 had a small Japanese boy with us, who carried my collecting-bag and 



