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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.
Founded in late 1957, The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society is very active and published an interesting report of its activities during 1958. In 1959 over 230 species and races were recorded, including five additions to the Colony list. These were the Slaty-backed Gull, Rufous Woodpecker, La Touche's Sunbird, Crimson-legged Crake and Red-footed Falcon. The total number of species believed to have bred in the Colony is now 64, three of which were recorded for the first time during 1959: the Great Egret, La Touche's Sunbird, and the Red-flanked Bluetail, the last being a winter visitor which normally migrates to Siberia to breed. The White-bellied Sea Eagle, two or three pairs of which are resident, was observed to have bred successfully for the first time for many years.
Reptiles and Amphibians. These are also well represented in Hong Kong, 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. Excluding certain rear-fanged species not dangerous to man, the venomous land snakes which occur are the Banded Krait, the Many-banded Krait, Macclelland's Coral Snake, the Indian or Chinese 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 fortunately it is not the nature of these reptiles to attack bathers.
Butterflies and Moths. One hundred and seventy nine species of butterflies, belonging to nine families, have been recorded for the Colony in a check list published in 1953. The number of moths is far greater but no comprehensive list of local species has ever been published. The attractive and predominantly tropical butterflies known popularly as 'swallow-tails' are conspicuous by a number of species. The magnificent Atlas Moth, (photograph opposite) with a wing-span from about seven to nine inches, is fairly common. Another very fine insect, also fairly common here, is the Moon Moth; this has a wing-span of about four to
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