RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241
BOOK REVIEWS

OBSERVATION 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.

Dr. 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,

The 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.

Particular 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:

'It is thus not with any idea of finality, but with the purpose of suggesting a wide field of enquiry . . . . .'.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g
15

DRAGE, C.

Taikoo London, Constable, 1970.

EGERTON, H. E.

Sir Stamford Raffles. London, Unwin, 1900.

FITZGERALD, C. P.

A concise history of East Asia, London, Heinemann, 1966.

HEMMINGSEN, A. M., and GUILDAL, J. A.

Observations on birds in northeastern China, especially the migration at Pei-tai-ho Beach. Hong Kong, Vetch & Lee, 1969.

LAING, E. J.

Chinese paintings in Chinese publications, 1956-1968: annotated bibliography and an index to the paintings. Ann Arbor, 1969 (Michigan Papers in Chinese Studies, no. 6)

LAL, K.

Miracle of Konark, New York, Castle Books, 1968.

LAU, S. M. Joseph

Ts'au Yüan. Hong Kong University Press, 1970.

LI, Chi, and JOHNSON, D.

Two studies in Chinese literature. Ann Arbor, 1968. (Michigan Papers in Chinese Studies, no. 3)

MURPHEY, R.

The treaty ports and China's modernization: what went wrong? Ann Arbor, 1970. (Michigan Papers in Chinese Studies, no. 7)

OKSENBERG, M., and others.

The cultural revolution, 1967, in review. Ann Arbor, 1968. (Michigan Papers in Chinese Studies, no. 2)

RUTT, R.

Korean works and days: notes from the diary of a country priest. Seoul, R. A. S., Korea Branch, 1964.

SPEISER, W.

China: spirit and society. London, Methuen, 1960. (Art of the world, 4)
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