Garrulax milnei milnei,a taxon little known in Chinese ornithology

As early as 1874, the French scientist P^re A. David introduced to science a new bird species, Trochalopteron milnei, described as： ＂Ressemblant au T.formosum du Setchouan, mais ayant le dessus de la tete couleur de cannelle ou d＇amadou, et la r6gion parotique blanche＂ （David, 1874）. The bird skin that P^re David collected, and so far deposited in Museum National d＇Histoire Naturelle in Paris, was from ＂Koaten of W Fo-kien＂, in the current Chinese romanization system, Koaten is spelt as Guadun and Fo-kien spelt as Fujian.

Fun in Ornithology

The earth, with its diversity andvariety, is a total ecology that has givenlift to and sustains the lives of all ofhumanity. Protecting that ecology hasbecome a major concern for peoplearound the world. With an eye towardsenvironmental protection, the Chinesegovernment and tourism agencieslaunched Ecotour China ’99. Thetheme of this year of environmentaltourism is "Walking Towards Natureand Protecting the Environment." To match this theme, we havepublished here a story introducing twonuture preservation zones for birdhabitats in China and with publishmore stories of this sort in the futurealso. We believe that these stories Willlend our readers majestic scrolls ofimagery as well as pass on a commonfeeling of humility towards nature.

Ozone pollution threatens bird populations to collapse:an imminent ecological threat?

While bird populations are declining,the factors associated with this decline are unclear.Based on laboratory experiments,air pollution has long been recognized as a factor causing oxidative stress and adversely aff ecting bird health.Recently,studies employing an epidemiological approach have reported signifi cant declines in avian populations in Central Europe and the United States due to air pollution,and ozone in particular.We advocate that urgent actions are needed to mitigate these eff ects,which threaten biodiversity and environmental health,and propose a series of measures which can enlighten the path toward mitigating air pollution eff ects on avian populations.

Does melanin-based plumage coloration reflect health status of free-living birds in urban environments?

Background:Ecological functions and processes in urban ecosystems are governed by various human activities.City-adapted and city-exploiting animal species are expected to present certain specific behavioral and physiological traits in comparison to city-avoiders or conspecific individual frequenting less urbanized or rural environments.A trait of high importance,the plumage color polymorphism has been selected as the main study model and was correlated with different morphological and physiological parameters to highlight its importance in determining the possible health status of urban Feral Pigeons(Columba livia)in North African urban habitats.Methods:Different body morphometrics,hematological and hemoparasitic parameters were quantified on freeliving Feral Pigeons in urban environments of northern Algeria.Moreover,plumage melanin-based coloration(MBC)was measured and the data collected at the individual scale was correlated with the previous parameters using linear and non-linear modeling approaches.Results:Plumage MBC scores of the sampled Feral Pigeons ranged between 0.3%and 74.8%.Among the 12 morphological traits measured,body weight,tail length and total length were deemed to be positively correlated with MBC.Darker morphs appeared to have more hemoparasites compared to lighter pigeons.Quite the same observation goes with the immunity but with non-linear trends.The number of monocytes and granulocytes increased with the increase in MBC levels in lighter morphs,while pigeons with high MBC scores exhibited negative relationships between MBC levels and the number of white blood cells.Conclusions:Despite the existence of a number of studies demonstrating phenotypic directional selection,further studies are undoubtedly necessary to understand in detail the underlying mechanisms in species life-history strategies between differently colored individuals.Findings of this correlative study open exciting perspectives revealing that MBC can be considered a good indicator of and health status and adaptation strategies to changes in urban environments.

Avian Research:a valuable addition to the portfolio of ornithological journals

We are pleased to share with readers that our journal Avian Research,jointly published by China Ornithological Society(COS)and Beijing Forestry University,has been included by the Journal Citation Report~?(JCR)of Thomson Institute for Scientific Information(ISI)and received its first Impact Factor in the summer of 2016.Articles tracked by the Web of Science of the same com-