To the Baitor of the "RommCunsa Day News"
Sinn. the interesting article ~pirds of 'Barter Shantung" by 'Auspex, "which appeared "in your ice of May 22, mention ts made of the Red-ramped' Accentor, which thor says inhablis Bllsides, rocky Ger teeeriag, like the Tockethrushes Sehich occur also in these parte and (like them it has a good song He Bates that be made the acquaintance tks bind' at Tengchow!u and Siwongheien, Shantung. Te would be jinteresing to know if the ebverver 12 sani sure of hie bine, for the Elloris "ervthropyoius, Sw) isa "rrequentor usually of high rocky mountain tops, and except under abnormal conditions is seldom found at low altitudes, It certainly is not regular inhabitant of hillsides. extended travels all over China, the only places where T have encountered this bird were the summits of the 8000 to 10,000ft. mountains in West Shansi and on the top of a jagged granite peak which rose high out of the forest to the north of Imienpo fon the Chinese Eastern Railway, North Kirin, Manchuria, in each case ate in the autumn, According to Dresser, it breeds in the Southern Baikal district and Eastern Siberia. Mr. J.D. D. La Touche, the well known authority on Chinese birds, gives its distribution as Chibli, Shantung, Shangsi, Shensi (winter), There is a much smaller bird, however, belonging to the same sul family, Pruneliiae, namely the Chinese hedge-sparrow (Prunelli mon-ranella, Pallas) which inhabits grassy and bush grown hill and mountain Sides in North China, but it is very different in general appearance from lhe Red-rumped Accentor, which is very characteristic and could hardly be mistaken for the other bird, though some of our thrushes might bbe mistaken for it at a distance.
'As regards Auspex' question concerning the reason for migrant birds being more abundant in the area under discussion in autumn than in spring, it may be suggested that, the autumn birds, having just arrived on the North Shantung coast after a Jong flight across the Pechihli Gulf, are tired and hang about looking for food and recovering their strength before going on south, and, therefore, are the more easily observed; whereas the spring migrants when they reach the sume area are fresh and well fed, and 50 do not dally, but start off immediately on their fight across the Gulf.
Some years ago, Mr. La Touche found that during the spring migration, Chinwangtao, where he was stationed, was an excellent place for making observations on migrant birds, and he gave as a reason the fact that the birds were tired and 90 hung about in large numbers atter their ight across the Pechihli Gulf from the Shantung Promontory, "It would seem, then, that it is not a question of the birds' being more abundant, the one migration period than in other, but that they are the more Feadily observed In one place. than another according to prevailing conations, Anmiun oe C. Sowenn Shanghai, May 28,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.