Page:Ibis - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/50

4 Two young birds were brought to me from the mountains on the 16th of July, 1917. They were still in the first nestling plumage and were unable to feed by themselves. The head, neck, wing-coverts, and mantle were of a rich deep brown, the feathers of the wing-coverts and mantle being edged with chestnut; the back was slate coloured and the breast chestnut-brown. The bill was of a very dark brownish horn. They retained this plumage until about September, when they changed gradually into adult plumage. They were fed without difficulty by hand with crushed kaoliang and small millet moistened with warm water, and remained very tame until they could feed by themselves, after which they would not allow one to handle them so freely. One of these birds developed an abnormal liking for raw beef, and I had to hide carefully the minced beef prepared for the other birds, as this dove would pounce on it and devour it all up. Sometimes, if it saw me distributing this food, it would fly down to snatch it from my hands. It would pursue the Cuckoo to get his meat from him. The other young dove Avas almost equally fond of bread and milk, and both birds would eagerly devour this when I gave them any. The meat appeared to disagree with the dove, and I prevented it from eating this as much as possible. On my leaving Chinwangtao I gave them liberty and had at first some difficulty in getting them to go out. The native who sold me these birds told me that one of the villagers had one which he had reared at liberty and which remained perfectly tame.

The Eastern Turtle-Dove is very common in southern Manchuria and breeds at Newchwang.

186. Syrrhaptes paradoxus (Pall.). Syrrhaptes paradoxus D. & 0, p. 389.

Pallas's Sand-Grouse is of very irregular occurrence at Chinwangtao. In the very cold year of 1905, I believe, it was seen in great numbers, but since then it does not appear to have occurred until the autumn of 1912. That year, on the 10th of November, I met several flocks flying very swiftly towards the northeast. They flew low as a rule,