Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/269

 the Hoang-ho. Of the mammals there are the black-tailed antelope (Antilope subgutturosa), hares (Lepus Tolai), foxes, wolves, and small rodents. Of birds those we saw were mostly pheasants (Phasianus torquatus), larks (Alauda arvensis, A. pispoletta? Galeria cristata?) Wheat-ears (Saxicola deserti; S. œnanthe), and hoopoes (Upupa Epops). On the marshes and lakes were geese (Anser cygnoides, A. cinereus), ducks (Anas boschas, A. acuta, A. rutila, and others), marsh harriers (Circus rufus, С spilonotus), terns (Sterna leucoptera, Sterna sp.), stilts (Hypsibates himantopus), avosets (Recurvirostra Avocetta), snipe (Scolopax gallinago, S. megala?) and small sand-pipers (Totanus ochropus, T. glareola, Tringa subminuta). On the River itself there were gulls (Larus ridibundus, L. occidentalis?) and a fishing-eagle (Haliætos Macei) may often be seen seated motionless on the precipitous banks. Ordos, like the whole of Mongolia, is so poor in birds that we only found 104 kinds in the valley of Hoang-ho and among the oases in the sands of Kuzupchi. It is probable that there are not many kinds of fish in the River. At all events we only caught six species in our small net — the Silurus (S. asotus), carp (Cyprinus carpid), the crucian carp (Curassicus vulgaris), dog-fish (Sqalius Chinensis), and two new kinds, perhaps two new genera, of the family of Cyprinidæ. We also procured some specimens of tortoises (Trionyx sp.), which are found in great numbers in the Hoang-ho.

As regards population in Ordos since the devastation caused by the Dungan insurrection in