Bird Notes from Western Kwangsi, China

Abstract

The avifauna of western Kwangsi Province in China has never been adequately studied. Yen (Oiseau, 3, 1933:204-243, 615-638, 755-788; 4, 1934:24-51) and Yen and Chong (Oiseau, 7, 1937:546-553) have published fairly recent lists for this province but they state that they have not explored the area at the frontier of Yunnan which lies to the west. This paper concerns the birds of that little known region and serves to supplement previous lists. Three birds (Elanus coeruleus, Upupa epops longirostris, Acridotheres grandis) not previously reported from the province and notes of interest on others seen and collected are reported here. From November 30, 1944, to July 20, 1945, I was stationed with a fighter control detachment of the Fourteenth Air Force near a town called Poseh on the West River. I was absent from the area only in the month of January and in a few days in July. Poseh is approximately 25 miles north of the tropic of cancer, 500 miles west-northwest of Hong Kong, about 200 miles inland from the Gulf of Tonkin of the South China Sea, and about 75 miles north of the Indo-China border. The town is located at the head of navigation on the West River at about 600 feet above sea level. Mountains, which rise to 3000 feet, surround the town and valley. Downstream the valley fans out to become about five miles wide, but upstream from Poseh the river cuts precipitous cliffs through the mountainous country which is contiguous with that of Yunnan to the west and Kweichow to the north. Like much of China the countryside has been nearly stripped of trees, but along the river are a few places which one might call forested. Bamboo, banana trees, an occasional banyan tree, and trees of the genus Bombax are constituents of this wooded area. Almost every available foot of the valley proper is honeycombed by rice paddies, which often extend up into the foothills of the mountains. The hills surrounding the valley are covered with grasses and in a few areas scattered pines (Pinus sinensis) remain. One finds occasional oases of trees along the tributaries of the river. Usually near houses at least two or three large trees have been spared to furnish shade during the hot season. Seasonal fluctuation in temperature and amount of rainfall in the Poseh region is much more marked than it is along the Gulf of Tonkin where the tempering effect of the ocean is felt. From November to February the weather at Poseh was cool-50-60 degrees F.-during the day. At this season the rice paddies were dry. By the first of March, Cercis chinensis was in blossom and near the end of the month Bombax blossomed. At the beginning of May, the rainy season started and the farmers began planting rice. By the middle of June, the weather became very hot and humid. Birds which wintered near Poseh departed for the north in March and the first part of April; those wintering south of the area passed through on their way north about the end of April and the first week in May. Nesting begins, for many species, about April 1 and continues to about the middle of June when the excessively hot season commences. The avifauna of the Poseh region, as might be expected, has decided affinities with that of Tonkin, Indo-China, to the south (Delacour and Jabouille, Oiseau, 10, 1940:89220) and of southeast Yunnan Province to the west (La Touche, A Handbook of the Birds of Eastern China, 1925-1934, 2 vols.). This may be illustrated by the presence of the following birds at Poseh: Falco tinnunculus saturatus, Upupa epops longirostris, Artamus fuscus, Acridotheres grandis, and Dicrurus leucophaeus hapwoodi. Other birds noted in the course of the breeding season are typical of the avifauna of southeastern China (La Touche, op. cit.). Examples of birds wintering at Poseh but which nest to the north of the region are Circus melanoleucus, Saxicola torquata and Melophus lathami.