[ { "id": 204260, "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-1961", "page_number": 28, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n25\n\nMunia is a fairly common resident, especially in the New Territories, but it is hard to say how successful it is at nesting, for it tends to build several nests before eventually raising a brood. The Chestnut Munia, a handsome black and chestnut bird, is often found in quite large flocks in Mai Po marshes in autumn and some may be seen all the year round there, but it has never yet nested as far as we know,\n\nThe above is a very brief summary of birds that are likely to be seen in Hong Kong during the year. If readers would like to know more about them, they might first of all join the Hong Kong Bird-Watching Society. By doing so, they can get into contact with its fifty or so members, and will be able to join them on frequent expeditions to various parts of the Colony. They will also receive a copy of the Society's Annual Report and will be able to borrow books from its increasingly important and comprehensive bird library. Unfortunately the local bird-books, such as they are, are out-of-print and the ones covering neighbouring countries are expensive, especially if one considers how few of Hong Kong's birds each one covers. But three books in particular may be recommended in that between them they have pictures and notes on about 275 of our birds, besides unillustrated notes on a few more.\n\nThese are:\n\nR. T. Peterson, G. Mountfort and A. D. Hollom. Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe. Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin, 1954\n\nK. Kobayashi. Birds of Japan. Osaka, Hoikushi, 1956\n\nB. E. Smythies. Birds of Burma. London, Oliver and Boyd, 1940\n\nAll these and many more are available from the Society's library. A new 'Check-list of the Birds of Hong Kong' is due for publication later in 1960 and will contain notes on the status and distribution in the Colony of every species so far recorded here.\n\nDuring the last three years or so, members of the Bird-Watching Society have noted several problems of bird-life in Hong Kong, which, though not particularly difficult, are puzzling because of conflicting or incomplete evidence. I should like to end this article with a few examples, so that bird-watchers who feel so inclined can go out armed with an objective.\n\n(a) Does the Peregrine nest in Hong Kong? It may be seen occasionally all the year round. If so, where? Lion Rock, Sharp Peak or perhaps Tai Tan Yang are possibilities.\n\n(b) What are the curious little rails or crakes which are flushed every autumn by snipe-shooters in the marshes? One is not allowed to shoot them and they are only seen briefly in flight,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206689, "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-1972", "page_number": 237, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n231\n\nGore's acquaintance with Western sources, I suspect that little of relevance has been missed. But as an example of space wasted where it was at a premium, I quote in full the status given for the Pied Kingfisher; \"Rare winter visitor. There are a number of old records between November-February, but none since February 1917. It seems that it has decreased in numbers in recent years”. I would need the pen of A. E. Housman to do justice to that last sentence.\n\nBooks of this type stand or fall on the quality and comprehensiveness of the coloured plates, provided the author has been fortunate enough to be able to raise the funds for these. In this book these are generally disappointing, partly because the colouring is inaccurate, as it is in every species on Plate XXV (this could be the fault of the printer rather than the artist), and partly because the pictures just do not look like the birds they are supposed to represent. Plate XXXIII, of admittedly difficult species, would have helped as much if it had been omitted altogether, and the plates of hawks, besides being inaccurate in colouring, are of little use for identification because they do not show the birds in flight, when they are far more likely to be seen, and far easier to identify. Captions are not always correct; on Plate XXXIV, a picture of the Grey-spotted Flycatcher is captioned \"Broad-billed Flycatcher\", a particularly sad error as the species are similar, and the inclusion of this particular species on the plate was presumably intended to point out the distinctions between them. Some care has been taken to maintain the correct scale, although it is a little disturbing on Plate XIV to find the Hazel Grouse looking larger than a female Ring-necked Pheasant.\n\nIn spite of these faults, this book compares favourably with almost all other books available on the birds of Eastern Asia, though Kobayashi's Birds of Japan has better plates (but an inadequate text in Japanese only), and Smythies' Birds of Borneo is better on both counts. However, the fact that two individual books can be mentioned in this way, as the only books at all adequate for any part of this vast region, is an indication of the magnitude of the task which the authors set themselves, and in general the satisfactory way in which they have fulfilled it. I know that Professor Won would like to improve his Korean text, and would like to get better pictures done, and it is to be hoped that this book will be sufficiently successful to enable him and Mr. Gore to produce a revised and improved edition.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 } ]