Mr. P. L. Sclater on Pere David’s Travels in China. 167 
before publishing it as new, to the inspection of Mr. R. B. 
Sharpe, who also declares it to be undescribed. Only one 
specimen was obtained. Wings and tail very short. 
Bremen, March 5, 1874. 
XX .—Notice of Pere David’s Travels in China. 
By P. L. Sclater. 
The recently completed seventh volume of the ‘ Nouvelles 
Archives du Museum d^Histoire Naturelle de Paris' contains 
a most interesting report, addressed to the Professors of the 
museum by the celebrated traveller, Pere Armand David, on 
his travels in the interior of China. So little is generally 
known concerning the exact countries in which Pere DavkPs 
extraordinary zoological discoveries were made, that we pro¬ 
pose to give a short abstract of this memoir for the informa¬ 
tion of our readers. 
Pere David started from his residence in the province of 
Pekin on the 26th of May, 1868, and returned from his ex¬ 
pedition, after an absence of twenty-five months, on the 24th 
of June, 1870. The first halting-place on his route was at 
Ching-kiang, in the province of Kiangsu, in Central China, 
where four months were passed in waiting for a favourable 
opportunity of continuing his travels westwards. This locality 
having been already accessible to Europeans for the last eight 
years, and not being very rich in animal life, only thirty species 
of birds were obtained there. Amongst these, however, were 
the new Nuthatch, described by Yerreaux as Sitta sinensis, 
and other species new to the Museum of Paris. 
It was not until the 13th November, 1868, that Pere David 
succeeded in making arrangements to quit Kiangsu and to 
ascend the Yangtze-Kiang, or, as the Chinese call it, the Ta- 
Kiang or Great River. He proceeded by steamer as far as 
Hankow, and thence in a Chinese junk through a series of 
canals and lakes towards the ancient city of Ichang. After 
eight or ten days of this slow navigation, the Great River was 
rejoined, and the traveller entered a larger junk, which was 
n 2 
