WILD LIFE IN CHINA OR CHATS ON CHINESE BIRDS AND BEASTS. BY GEORGE LANNING, Ex-Principal of the Shanghai Public School. SHANGHAI: 'THE NATIONAL REVIEW" OFFICE. 1911. The book may be obtained In EUROPE, from: Messrs. Probsthain and Co., 41 Great Russell Street, LONDON. W. C. In AMERICA, from: H. Colyer Jr., 17 Madison Avenue, NEW YORK CITY. PREFACE. FEW words will be needed to establish friendly relations between one Nature lover and an- other. For nearly sixty years, considerably more than half of them spent in China, I have loved to study the forms and habits of every living creature with which I have come in contact, reptile life in- cluded. Unfortunately, this has been possible, not as a vocation, but as an avocation, during holidays, travels, and odds and ends of time in an otherwise busy life. During wanderings across the oceans, through Europe and Siberia twice, through a third of the United States, and along the ordinary Suez Canal Route between Europe and China notes have been made of such bird life as falls to the lot of the traveller to see. These, however, are common to many observers. Those specially dealing with Wild Life in China are now put into popular form for the first time, and it is hoped that, notwithstanding many shortcomings, this may in itself form sufficient excuse for their appearance in permanent form. I am indebted more than I can say to "Les Oiseaux de la Chine", the scholarly work of M.L'Abbe Armand David, et M. E. Oustalet, to the late Mr. Consul Swinhoe's re- ' ' ' ral searches, to 'The Royal Natu History (Lydekker) , to Mr. H. T. Wade's "With Boat and Gun in the Yangtze Valley", and to various other writers. To the ever present, ever new, and ever delightful stimulus of "The Field" and "Country Life" I, in 2005441 VI PREPACK. common with tens of thousands of other Nature worshippers, owe a constantly accumulating debt. To the friendly critic who will find in stereotyped form and length of chapters, in faulty phrasing and style, in misprints here and there, and in other matters deserving criticism, many opportunities for the use of literary caustic I would say only this, that the papers first appeared in journalistic form in the pages of "The National Review" (China), that they were necessarily confined within certain pre- scribed space, and sometimes suffered in consequence. For the rest, the writing of them, rather hurried at times, was a labour of love, and if they find but few readers to whom they give some slight pleasure, such a reward will more than suffice. G. L. Shanghai, 1911. CONTENTS. PAGE. Preface v Publishers' Note vii Contents ix Introduction xiii CHAPTERS. I. The Mysteries of Migration (\9th March) 1 II. Geese (2fith March) 5 III. Duck (2nd April) 9 IV. Snipe (9th April) 13 V. Woodcock (16th April) . 17 VI. Rooks and Crows (23rd April) 21 VII. The Crow's Cousins (30th April) 25 VIII. Some Shanghai Singing Birds (1th Mail) 39 IX. Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns (14th May) 33 X. Cuckoos (21st May) 37 . 41 XI. Nests and Nestlings (28th May) . XII. Flycatchers (4th June) 46 XIII. The Kingfishers (llth June) 50 XIV. Orioles and Boilers (18*7* June.) 54 XV. The Finches (25th June) 58 XVI. The Tit Family (2nd July) 62 XVII. Woodpeckers (9th July) 66 XVIII. Pigeons, Doves and Sand-Grouse (16t/i July) 70 XIX. Swallows, Martins, Swifts, and Night-Jars (23-jy? July) . 74 XX. The Shrikes (30th July) 78 XXI. Mynas, Starlings, etc. (6th August) 82 XXII. Plovers (ISfh August) 86 XXIII. Plovers and Sandpipers (20th August) 90 XXIV. Curlews, Whimbrels (27th Aunust) 95 XXV. Bustards, Rails, etc. (3rd September) 99 XXVI. Quails (10th September) 103 XXVII. Partridges (llth September) 107 XXVIII Pheasants (24th September) Ill XXIX. Pheasants. (Continued) (1st October) .115 XXX. Pheasants. (Concluded) (8th October) 110 XXXI. Gulls (15th October) 123 XXXII. Terns (22n<i October) 127 132 XXXIII. Cormorants and Pelicans (29f/i October) X \\lV.-The Ibis and Crane (olh November) 137 XXXV. Wagtails and Buntings (12th November) 141 XXXVI. Autumn Migrants (19th November) 145 X CONTENTS. CH.UTKHS. PAGE. U'J XXXVII. Birds of Prey: Vultures (With November) 153 X X XV 1 1 1. Eagles (3rd December) 157 XXXIX. Eagles. (Continued) (10th December) XL. Falcons: The Peregrine (17th December) 161 XL1. Falcons: The Saker, Goshawk, Hobby, Merlin and Kestrel 165 (24th December) XLII. Hawks and Harriers (Mst December) 16'J XLI1I. Buzzards and Kites (7th January) 173 XL1V. Owls (Uth January) 177 " 181 XL v_0wls. (Concluded) ('21st January) . XLtf Chinese Field Sports 185 iXLVII. Chinese Field Sports. (Continued) . ........... 180 XL VIII. Chinese Field Sports. (Concluded) .193 XLIX. Tigers 197 L. -Tigers. (Continued) 201 LI. Leopards and Lynxes 205 LII. Wild Cats 209 LIII. A Very Mixed Menagerie 213 LIV. Some Big Game 217 LY. Reptiles 222 LVL Fabulous Creatures 226 LVI I. Fabulous Creatures. (Concluded) 230 A ppcudix, The Big Game of Western China ...... 237 INTRODUCTION. Perhaps the oldest classical reference to the natural history of wild life known to the west is Genesis 1.29: "And Gocl said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firamament of heaven." To the Chinese there will come to mind, amongst the earliest of theirs, some of the rhymed ballads contained in the "Book of Odes," for which the outer world as well as the Chinese is indebted to the selective editorial skill of the great deified sage, Confucius. It was he who out of some 3,000 metrical com- positions selected the "Three Hundred" actually three hundred and five which he rightly held in such high and which are still a source of keen to esteem,% delight my- riads of modern scholars. "Have you learnt the Odes?" he one day asked of his son. "No," was the reply. "Then you will be unfit for the society of intellectual men," was the crushing rejoinder. Perhaps the impatient reader will want to know what the "Odes" have to do with the matter under consideration. The answer is ready. Even in the days of Confucius the Odes" were a mirror of the long lost past. They presented a picture, or rather a series of pictures,of ancient Chinese thought and action. Being true in poetry they were true to nature, and it is here that their connexion with our subject is found. The close student will discover scattered through their pages references to nearly two hnndred plants and animals. Of these roughly a half are allusions to birds, beasts, fishes, and insects. They show that long ages before man thought of the first great Chinese Encyclopaedia, that of \Vu Shu, (947-1002 A.D.), which deals largely with natural history, there was that love of nature amongst Chinese observers which has characterized them ever since, and which will by and by be one of the links most closely con- necting them with the purest and best thought of the West. I have no desire in these sketches to attempt a systematic and complete scheme of Chinese Natural History. Even the much admired work of M. 1'Abbe xiv WILD LIFE IN CHINA. Armand David does not claim to be that, although it gives detailed information respecting some eight hundred species of birds alone. Such a work is not within the power of any one man to perform, without the aid of countless observers each dealing with some circumscribed area. For as all students of bird life know, there is still much to learn, many are the doubts to be cleared up, and not a few mistaken preconcep- tions have yet to be removed before Chinese natural history can be an exact science. What personal experience has suggested to me and my friends during a third of a century will be jotted down in due course, Nature herself throughout the "revolving year" being her own prompter as to the order in which the various divisions of the subject shall be taken. Classical severity of language, which must be the medium through which exact ornithology expresses itself, will be used as sparingly as possible. Menila Sinensis will sing none the less sweetly during these beautiful spring mornings if he is made to appear in his plain English dress of "Blackbird." But as we are a many-tongued people in the Far East just now, it will be advisable in most cases to supply in brackets, (I promise faithfully that it shall be in brackets), the technical names recognized by ornithologists everywhere. Otherwise it may happen that mistakes will occur, as for example, when such a misused name as "Crow"' is employed. What does "Crow" stand for? Is it the French GroIIe, or Corbeille ? Is it the Chinese \Vti ya, or the Chin- ese Lao ya ? It is impossible to say, for there seems to be as much confusion in the Chinese and French as there is in English. ButonceletthetechnicalCon'//s corone be given, and all doubt is dispelled. The identity is certain. It is the crow we mean, that solitary, rather misanthropic bird, not the rook, which is Corvitsfnigilegus, a bird fond of the company of his fellows, and, as is unpleasantly evident in some parts of the Shanghai Settlement, not less so of that of man. Except, then, for purposes such as this, long-legged Latin terms will be carefully eschewed. The Chinese name of a thrush-like singing bird, Hwa-mei, is many times softer and prettier than Leucodioptron Sinense. Besides this, we are sure to find, as we proceed, that descriptions of one or two well- known species will suffice for the representation of large families less familiar, and so avoidance of dull detail will be all the more easy.