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Notes Comments
LARGE WHITE-RUMPED SWIFT (Apus pacificus pacificus).
On March 6th several of these birds were seen flying round the summit of the mountain Ng Tung Shan (Height 3,100 ft.). Last year on March 2nd they were observed near the top of Kowloon Peak, this was noted as an unusually early date to see these Swifts. PEREGRINE FALCON (Falco peregrinus calidus).
A pair of these birds were seen on the slopes of Ng Tung Shan on March 6th; on March 19th a single bird was seen over the frontier road near Sha Tau Kok.
EASTERN GREY CRANE (Megalornis grus lilfordi).
On November 30th two of these birds were seen at Ping Shan feed- ing on a paddy field near the sea; observers at Chilang Point have informed us that several of these birds frequent this district throughout the winter months. These huge birds are unmistakable, their length varies between 42 and 60 inches. They are difficult to approach on account of their ex- treme wariness, they are usually found on saltings or cultivated land near the sea.
CROW PHEASANT (Centropus s. sinensis).
On February 21st the crow pheasant was heard calling for the first time, the bird is said to breed in April, though actually no nests were found until May last year.
JAVA SPARROW (Munia orizivora),
This bird was first seen on 10th November, it is one of the two Weavers to visit the colony. A small number of these birds took up re- sidence in shrubs in the dockyard for some time, but as these birds were very tame they may have been escapes from captivity, especially as they are favourite cage birds with the Chinese. A gaily coloured little bird with a bright pink bill and legs, head and neck black with a conspicuous white patch on sides of the head below the eye, dove-grey upper parts, underparts dove grey to white under tail-coverts, tail black.
CHINESE STARLING (Sturnia sinensis).
Small numbers of these birds were seen on April 6th in trees around the village of Kam Tin. This species is a common spring visitor and stays to breed; it is a much smaller bird than either of the Mynahs. The head, neck and upper parts are creamy grey, wings white with black primaries, underparts creamy grey, tail black tipped white, bill blue, legs plumbeous. This species is noisy and has a variety of calls and whistlings after the man- ner of the Sturnidæ, April 1st arrived Island House Tai Po. INDIAN KOEL (Eudynamis orientalis honorata).
First seen and heard on April 6th in a grove by the village of Sek Kong, Kam Tin district. On April 8th a bird was seen in the Lam Tsuen valley and on the same day in the woods at Fanling. The call of this bird can be confused with that of no other bird except that of the Great Chinese
Notes Comments
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Barbet (Megalaima virens virens); there are several districts in the New Territory where both species are fairly numerous such as the Lam Tsuen valley. During the nesting season the incessant mournful calling of the male birds is heard both day and night until it positively becomes a nuisance. The Koel is known to Europeans as the Rain bird. Common to the habit of Cuckoos this bird lays one or more eggs in the nest of another bird preferably that of the Black-necked Mynah (Gracupica nigricollis); the eggs laid bear a considerable resemblance in colour to these of this bird. On April 26th last year a single egg was found in the nest of a Black-necked Mynah, on June 30th three young Koels were found in another of these Mynahs nests. The Indian Cuckoo (Cuculus m. microp- terus) was not seen till April 13th when six birds were seen in the Lam Tsuen Valley.
GREY-HEADED BLACK-FACED BUNTING (Emberiza spodocephala
spodocephala).
On March 26th several birds were seen together near the village of Tung Chung, Lan T'au Island. They were perched about the bushes bordering a stream. These birds are noticeable at once by their bright colours, the head and neck is grey with a conspicuous chestnut patch on the cheeks, upper parts bright chestnut, primaries brown edged with chestnut, under parts buffish-white tail brownish-black.
We have recorded this species once before also on Lan Tau, this was in December 1930, on this occasion several birds were seen together on the South Coast of the Island.
EASTERN HOUSE SWALLOW (Hirundo rustica gutturalis).
First seen on February 20th. An observer tells us that as early as March 12th a nest was being built on an uninhabited house in the Castle Tsuen valley.
CHINESE LITTLE BITTERN (Ixobrychus s. sinensis).
On 15th March a specimen was picked up at Aberdeen (Hong Kong) in an exhausted condition and died soon afterwards. This bird proved to be a young male. The Chinese Little Bittern is said to be common and breeding in Kwangtung, but we have no records of their doing so in the Colony, although a few birds appear to remain throughout the
winter.
THE JAPANESE ROBIN FLYCATCHER (Siphia Mujimaki).
On March 19th a single bird was seen in a paddy field near the the village of San Uk Ling, Sham Chun, the bird was hawking insects. This bird has the habit of feeding on migration close to the ground, actually alighting to take its food off the ground then regaining its perch on a neigh- bouring bush.
A most attractively coloured bird the upper parts grey-black with white car-coverts, bar and blotch on wing and bases to side feathers and tail, under parts orange and white, bill black, legs reddish-brown. summer the upper parts are black. This is the first record we have made of this flycatcher.
In
The Hong Kong Naturalist.
May 1932.
167
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