Fur and feather in North China

Description:

Identifier: furfeatherinnort00sowe (find matches)
Title: Fur and feather in North China
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Sowerby, Arthur de Carle, 1885-1954
Subjects: Zoology -- China Birds -- China
Publisher: Tientsin, North China : Tientsin Press
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
Raddes Toad (Bufo raddei). I have never yet come across anything like the newts or salaman-ders in North China, though some members of this group exist furthersouth, notably the giant salamander (Megatohatrachus ninximus) ofCentral and West China, where it occurs in the mountain streams.This large and ugly creature was one of the numerous discoveries ofArmand David, and it is very rare. Doubtless the same unfavour-able climatic conditions that seem to account for the poverty in thereptilian forms of life, also have an unfavourable effect upon thebatrachians. Turning from these semi-aquatic denizens of the swamps andrivers, we come to a much more richly represented group of cold blooded 172 ITcOGS, TOADS AND SOME FRESH-WATEE FISH. vertebrates, namely the fishes, though here again, especially in theinterior, the dryness of the climate and the extremes of heat and .-;oldhave severely handicapped certain forms in the struggle for existence.
Text Appearing After Image:
North China is very far indeed from being an anglers paradise,in fact it is doubtful if any Europeans out here go in for* angling to anyextent. There is one ardent discii)le of Walton, who spends some ofhis Saturday afternoons fly fishing on the ponds and canals round theTientsin Race Course, and he tells me he often has good sport.Another gentleman of similar tastes ordered out expensive sets of rods» FEOGS, TOADS AND SOME FBESH-WATEE FISH. 173 tackle, hooks and flies for fishing on the Pao-ting Fu lakes, but when,some years later he made me a present of his entire outfit, its remark-ably new appearance told a significant tale. The reason for this sad state of aSairs is not difficult to find, fornot only are the rivers of North China notoriously muddy, and so un-suitable for angling as a fine art, but so keen is the struggle for hveli-hood amongst the teaming human population that every lake, canaland river is dredged and scoured for the fish it contains. A hundredand one different

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