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The largest class are the pheasants. They are exceedingly beautiful, especially the golden, silver, Lady Amherst, Elliott, Reeves, green Japanese, Swinhoe, English ring neck, Melanotis, and Torquatis pheasants. The common wild geese are Egyptian, Canadian, white-fronted, Sebastopol, snow, brant, bar-headed, spin-winged and many others.
"Imagine such a scene," says Swinhoe. "The emperor is seated on his ebony throne, attired in a yellow robe wrought over with dragons in gold thread, his head surmounted with a spherical crown of gold and precious stones, with pearl drops suspended round on light gold chains.
Bird life is on a much better footing, but the ornithology of Fukien already has received considerable attention through the collections of Swinhoe, La Touche, Styan, Ricketts, Caldwell and others, and probably not a great number of species remain to be described.
The female, when driven from her nest, has been observed thus to call her mate, who answered in the same manner and soon appeared. Swinhoe observed, first draws in air, and then taps the end of its beak perpendicularly down against a stone or the trunk of a tree, "when the breath being forced down the tubular bill produces the correct sound."
All the foregoing statements and quotations, in regard to Cophotis, Sitana and Draco, as well as the following facts in regard to Ceratophora and Chamaeleon, are from Dr. A Chinese species is said to live in pairs during the spring; "and if one is caught, the other falls from the tree to the ground, and allows itself to be captured with impunity" I presume from despair. Mr. Swinhoe, 'Proc. Zoolog.
In this way from twelve to twenty birds, all breeding females, may be caught in the course of a single day. The natives assert that the females after laying their eggs associate in flocks, and leave the males to sit on them. There is no reason to doubt the truth of this assertion, which is supported by some observations made in China by Mr. Swinhoe. Jerdon, 'Birds of India, vol. iii. p. 596. Mr.
On Woodpeckers, Macgillivray, 'Hist. of British Birds, vol. iii. 1840, pp. 84, 88, 89, and 95. On the Hoopoe, Mr. Swinhoe, in 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc. June 23, 1863 and 1871, p. 348. On the Night-jar, Audubon, ibid. vol. ii. p. 255, and 'American Naturalist, 1873, p. 672. Zool. Outer tail-feather of Scolopax frenata.
Swinhoe, in 'Ibis, July 1863, p. 131; and a previous paper, with an extract from a note by Mr. The young also of these three species in their immature plumage closely resemble the adults in their winter dress.
The objection would be a valid one, if the younger and less ornamented males were as successful in winning females and propagating their kind, as the older and more beautiful males. But we have no reason to suppose that this is the case. Audubon speaks of the breeding of the immature males of Ibis tantalus as a rare event, as does Mr. Swinhoe, in regard to the immature males of Oriolus.
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