Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/111

Rh , Scansores, Oscines, Columbæ, and Gallinaceæ; of the Grallatores and Natatores only one species breeds here. The proportions of the representatives in each class are, however, very unequal, the warblers (Oscines) being far the most numerous; next in order come the Raptores, then Gallinaceæ, then climbers (Scansores), and Columbæ last of all.

The following table will at once show the distribution of the birds of Kan-su:—

On comparing the birds of Kan-su with those of Mongolia, we find as striking a difference between them as between their floræ—a fact accounted for by the contrast between the physical conditions of the two countries. Forty-three of these birds were foreign to Mongolia, and even more if we were to include the birds of the Munni-ula and Ala-shan ranges. The ornithology of Kan-su comprises Siberian, Chinese, Himalayan, and Thian-Shan birds.

Beginning with the Raptores, we first notice three kinds of vultures, the Snow-Vulture (Gyps nivicola), the Black Vulture (Vultur monachus), and the