NATURAL HISTORY
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district on Hong Kong Island and in other wooded localities. The Eastern Chinese Otter has been seen rarely recently. Two species of civets still found in the Colony are the Rasse or Small Indian Civet and the Masked Palm Civet; both are shy nocturnal creatures and good climbers, feeding on small animals and fruit.
The Barking Deer, known also as Reeves' Muntjac, inhabits various hilly wooded localities on Hong Kong Island. Being largely nocturnal it is seldom seen, although its characteristic bark is familiar to many residents of the Peak. It is a small deer, about the size of a large dog; the males have simple antlers, and their canines are developed as short curved tusks. In the New Territories, where it has been hunted, this animal has now become scarce. The Wild Boar, which is also hunted, now occurs only in very small numbers in the New Territories.
Rodents deserving special mention are the Chinese or Crestless Himalayan Porcupine, found both on Hong Kong Island and in the New Territories, the Smaller Bandicoot Rat, and a pretty little animal called the Eastern Spiny-haired Rat which is bright yellowish-brown above and pure white on the belly. All three are entirely 'wild' (non-domestic) species. Among the Colony's other small mammals are the House Shrew, and several species of insect and fruit-eating bats.
Cetaceans so far recorded in or near Hong Kong waters are the Common Dolphin, the Black Finless Porpoise, and the Common Rorqual or Finback Whale of which there was a single record during 1955. Another newly recorded cetacean is the Pigmy Sperm- whale caught on the shore of Pak Sha Wan in May 1963.
Birds. Over 300 species of birds have been identified in Hong Kong. Consequently, there is much to interest ornithologists and bird watchers, and opportunity exists for a great deal more work on their ecology and migration. They include both palaearctic and oriental species, some of the families represented being those con- taining the crows, babblers, bulbuls, thrushes, redstarts, flycatchers, minivets, drongos, warblers, starlings, munias, finches, buntings, swallows, wagtails, cuckoos, kingfishers, owls, eagles, pigeons, rails, gulls, terns, plovers, sandpipers, herons, ducks and grebes. Birds rarely seen in the Colony include Swinhoe's Forked-tailed Petrel, the Chinese Pitta, the Large Chinese Cuckoo-shrike, the Crimson Legged Crake, the Malay Brown Hawk-Owl, the Siberian Thrush,
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