[
    {
        "id": 208214,
        "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-1977",
        "page_number": 253,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nOCCURRENCE OF THE FROGS\n\nRANA PARASPINOSA AND RANA SPINOSA\n\nIN HONG KONG\n\n237\n\nThe herpetological literature for over half a century has recorded the occurrence of Rana spinosa David in Hong Kong. However, Dubois (1975) has shown that a series totalling sixteen preserved specimens in the British Museum (Natural History) and in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, under the name Rana spinosa and having come from Hong Kong, represent a species closely related to, but distinct from, R. spinosa. He has named these frogs Rana (Paa) paraspinosa, having stated the type locality to be 'The Peak, Hong Kong' and recorded a paratype from 'Mount Butler, Hong Kong.' Dubois' discovery that what was previously thought to be R. spinosa is a closely related but distinct species will inevitably cause confusion as regards much of the existing literature recording 'R. spinosa' from Hong Kong.\n\nHaving re-examined all of the specimens which I had identified as R. spinosa in my own collection from The Peak district on Hong Kong Island (four males and five females, all adults) and Tai Po Kau Forest Reserve in the New Territories mainland of Hong Kong (one adult female), I find them all to be R. paraspinosa.\n\nThe main purpose of this note is to record the recent finding of Rana spinosa on the mountain Tai Mo Shan in the New Territories of Hong Kong. A total of seven specimens, comprising three adults and four juveniles, were taken by Dr. Frank F. Reitinger and Mr. Jerry K. S. Lee on 9 and 18 July 1978 at altitudes ranging from about 853 to 870 metres.\n\nAnother point, of ecological interest, is the fact that R. paraspinosa also occurs on Tai Mo Shan. As yet the evidence for this rests on a single fully mature female taken at an altitude of about 808 metres by Dr. Frank F. Reitinger on 14 July 1978. Thus, with the specimen from Tai Po Kau Forest Reserve mentioned above, two specimens of R. paraspinosa have so far been recorded for the New Territories mainland. While both paraspinosa and spinosa occur in the mainland area of Hong Kong, present indications are that the latter may not inhabit Hong Kong Island. It would be interesting to obtain specimens from streams high up on Lantau Island, where both species may reasonably be expected to occur.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208215,
        "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-1977",
        "page_number": 254,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "238\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nI wish to express my thanks to Dr. Robert F. Inger (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago) for kindly confirming my identifications of specimens of both R. paraspinosa and R. spinosa from Hong Kong, and to Dr. Frank F. Reitinger and Mr. Jerry K. S. Lee for their generous gift of all of the above-mentioned specimens from Tai Mo Shan.\n\nREFERENCE\n\nDubois, A.\n\n1975 Un nouveau sous-genre (Paa) et trois nouvelles espèces du genre Rana. Remarques sur la phylogénie des Ranidés (Amphibiens, Anoures) Bull. Mus. natn. Hist. nat., Paris, 3rd series, No. 324, Zoology 231, pp. 1093-1115.\n\nHong Kong, 20 September 1978\n\nJ. D. ROMER\n\nA VILLAGE WAR (Postscript)\n\nA very similar incident is reported by E. J. Dukes in his late 19th century work Everyday Life in China, pp. 106-107:\n\n\"Several years ago, in a village near Amoy, rival idols were being carried in procession. The paths converged to a point a little way out of the village. The persons forming the procession caught sight of one another, and ran towards the junction of the paths, to see which could get the precedence. They came into collision, indulged in a little fighting, and began a quarrel which lasted fourteen months. Thirty-two villages became involved. A tax was levied upon them by the elders of the villages for the purchase of firearms and ammunition. Sentries were placed at the top of square towers, to shoot at any of the hostile party that might venture into the fields. The seeds could not be sown. The standing crops could not be reaped. Two small cannon were bought in Amoy, and with these they amused themselves occasionally in battering a wall or a roof. Great damage was done. The whole neighbourhood was reduced to distress. Where were the mandarins? Calmly waiting till some one was killed. When that event occurred, and was multiplied by twenty-two, the district mandarin became indignant, sent three thousand troops to take possession, levied black-mail on all the villages involved, and retreated with the spoil.”",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
        "rank": 0
    }
]