[
    {
        "id": 206128,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1970",
        "page_number": 208,
        "title": "RAS-1970",
        "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\nOBSERVATION ON BIRDS IN NORTH EASTERN CHINA ESPECIALLY THE MIGRATION AT PEI-TAI-HO BEACH, Axel M. Hemmingsen and J. A. Guildal, Spolia Zoologica Musei Hauniensis, Copenhagen, Volumes 11 (1951) and 28 (1968) In Two Parts: General Part, pp. 227: Special Part, pp. 326, Sales Agents: Vetch and Lee, Hong Kong. HK$130.00.\n\nDr. Hemmingsen was stranded in China after the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941; as a Dane, he was not interned, and was able to spend the rest of the war years in a concentrated study of the birds at Peitaiho, on the coast of Hopei in North China. This area was already well known for migration studies from the work of Wilder, Hubbard, and others. The results of Dr. Hemmingsen's studies published here, form the most detailed study of a coastal area of China yet published, and therefore provide information on the migration down the China coast which is unobtainable elsewhere,\n\nThe publication of the notes was made in two parts; the first, published in 1951, containing a number of articles based on the author's observations; and the second, published in 1968, containing a systematic list of all birds recorded from the area. There are few breeding species at Peitaiho, and therefore most of the general articles are concerned with migration.\n\nParticular attention is paid to the migrations of cranes and geese, which, being both large and noisy, are less liable to be overlooked than other migrants. These migrations are studied in great detail, in relation to temperature, wind-strength, time of day, etc., in an attempt to work out the reasons for the timing of their migrations. Conclusions based on one series of observations cannot, of course, be accepted as proved, and the author makes it quite clear that his conclusions should only be taken as theories. This caution is welcome, and it increases the value of the book to students of the Eastern Palaearctic migrations. The purpose of the author is stated as follows:\n\n'It is thus not with any idea of finality, but with the purpose of suggesting a wide field of enquiry . . . . .'.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 206129,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1970",
        "page_number": 209,
        "title": "RAS-1970",
        "content_text": "202\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nThe second part contains the data on which the theories of the first section were based. Due to financial problems, publication of this section had to be delayed, and it was reduced considerably in size by the co-author, Mr. Guildal. The final result is an extremely painstaking and valuable Checklist of the birds of Hopei Province, including not only the Peitaiho records, but also records from previous literature covering the whole province. The value of this material to ornithologists can be gauged by the fact that no investigation in such detail has been carried out anywhere else on the coast of China. It is regrettable that the avifauna of Hong Kong, the only place where comparable studies could be carried out, is dwindling, and unless stern conservation measures are taken very soon, the obvious possibilities here will have been destroyed for ever. It is a pathetic commentary on the values current in Hong Kong that it should be necessary to say this.\n\nIn one important aspect, the delay in publication of the second part has produced a situation which makes the book difficult to use. Dr. Hemmingsen has based his systematics and nomenclature on Hartert, Die Vögel der paläarktischen Fauna (1903-23), which is now out of date, and was in fact already out of date when the first part was published. To achieve consistency, the same nomenclature has been used in the second part. As the first part has been reprinted in this volume, it is a great pity that the opportunity of updating this aspect was missed. A further legacy of the same era is the emphasis on subspecific identification; while this can be useful for specimen identification, it is very rarely practicable in the field. To do the author justice, however, he is extremely cautious on field identification, and, unlike many ornithologists, he is always ready to admit where he is uncertain of an identification. I would have preferred to see more field notes, and less attempts to describe callnotes and songs, as the latter are always subjective and therefore less useful to later observers.\n\nThe study of bird migration in this part of the world has advanced considerably in the past few years due to the work of a few groups of enthusiasts, backed by the Migratory Animals Pathological Survey. Over six million birds have been ringed under these schemes, and much information has been gathered",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 206130,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1970",
        "page_number": 210,
        "title": "RAS-1970",
        "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n203\n\nabout migration routes. It is perhaps just as well, therefore, to remember that there are many aspects of migration which can only be studied by visual observations, and Dr. Hemmingsen's studies remind us forcibly of this,\n\nIn general, the volume is well produced, although the numerous black and white photographs are not of high enough quality to be of much practical use.\n\npractical use. Because of its high standards of accuracy, this book will remain a necessary work of reference, in its rather limited field, for many years to come.\n\nHong Kong, 1970,\n\nM. A. WEBSTER\n\nHONG KONG STUDIES: A BIBLIOGRAPHY. Compiled by M. I. Berkowitz and Eddie K. K. Poon. Hong Kong, Department of Extramural Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1969, pp. xvi, 137. HK$10.\n\nBibliographies are indispensable adjuncts to research and to increasing knowledge but they are not generally subjects that appeal to the student looking for useful work to do. Most of us would rather use them than compile them, especially when their nature renders them so vulnerable to criticism, fair or otherwise: it is much easier to be destructive than constructive in reviewing bibliographies.\n\nI welcome this new bibliography since it provides a handy reference to a variety of items on Hong Kong affairs. Its usefulness is immediately apparent to this reviewer in that it has brought items to his attention of which he was not hitherto aware, though working for years on the Hong Kong background. It is more ambitious and ranges more widely, though less deeply, than the bibliography (28 pages in 1963) which until that year used to be included in the Hong Kong Government's Colony Annual Report, and its less useful successor, J. M. Braga's short (17 pages) Hong Kong book list, A Hong Kong Bibliography 1965 published by the Government Press. It also lists articles as well as books.\n\nHowever, this new bibliography is still in no way comprehensive: there is a good deal of material that could have been included. Because of this I feel that the title promises too much. It might, say, have been better to stick to post-war publications\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241",
        "rank": 0
    }
]