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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
Birds. There is much to interest ornithologists and bird- watchers in Hong Kong. Including published and unpub- lished records, well over three hundred species of birds are known to have occurred in the Colony. During 1957 birds reported for the first time included the Eastern Steppe Eagle, Spoon-bill Sandpiper, Orange-headed Ground Thrush and Red-winged Crested Cuckoo. A great deal more work is necessary, however, particularly with regard to breeding and feeding habits, various other aspects of ecology, and migra- tion. The avifauna of Hong Kong includes both palaearctic and oriental species, some of the families represented being those containing the crows, babblers, bulbuls, thrushes, redstarts, flycatchers, minivets, drongos, warblers, starlings, weavers, finches, buntings, swallows, wagtails, cuckoos, kingfishers, owls, eagles, pigeons, rails, gulls, terns, plovers, sandpipers, herons, ducks and grebes, to mention only those represented by several species.
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Reptiles and Amphibians. These are also well represented in the Colony, especially by snakes, lizards and frogs. Others include various terrapins and turtles, the Common Indian Toad and the Chinese Newt. Among the Colony's snakes those most commonly encountered are harmless and death from snake-bite is extremely rare. During 1957 only one such fatality was reported, this being a villager on Lantao Island who died four hours after being bitten by a King Cobra which he had captured. Excluding certain rear-fanged species harmless to man, the venomous land snakes which occur are the Banded Krait, the Many-banded Krait, Macclelland's Coral Snake, the Indian Cobra, the Hamadryad (King Cobra) and the White-lipped Pit Viper (Bamboo Snake). All of the several sea snakes known to occur within or near the Colony's territorial waters are venomous, but none attacks bathers.
Butterflies and Moths. One hundred and seventy-nine species of butterflies, belonging to nine families, have been recorded for the Colony. The number of moths is far greater