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Show 344 MR. H. SEEBOHM ON BIRDS [Apr. 15, slaty green, like those of Liothrix argentauris, instead of being rufous green, and the general colour of the upper parts is of a bluer green than in Liothrix calipyya. PARADOXORNIS GUTTATICOLLIS, David, Nouv. Archives, 1871, Bull. p. 14. Paradoxornis pileo rufo, guld alba nigro sagittatd. Herr Baun obtained an example of this curious bird at Ching-fung on the 13th of October. It measures 3-6 inches in length of wing, and 4*7 inches in length of tail. The type of Paradoxornis austeni (Gould, Birds of Asia, iii. pi. 73) is a smaller bird, measuring only 3'1 inches in length of wing, and 3*2 in length of tail, and has all the appearance of being in immature plumage. There is a fine series in the H u m e collection which agree in dimensions with the Chinese examples, so that there can be little doubt of the absolute identity of the Himalayan and Chinese birds. SUTHORA BULOMACHUS, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1863, p. 300. This species has hitherto been supposed to be peculiar to the island of Formosa, but Herr Baun has sent two examples collected at Puching (one in February and the other in May), which are very conspicuously streaked on the throat, and in the richness of the chestnut on the crown are intermediate between the types of Suthora bulomachus and Suthora suffusa, both of which are in the Swirdioe collection. LANIUS BUCEPHALUS. Herr Baun has sent two examples of this Shrike collected at Puching, one in September and the other in December. PARUS VENUSTULUS, Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 133. Herr Baun has sent two examples of this rare Tit from Puching, collected on the 15th and 16th of November. One of them agrees with the type in the Swinhoe collection, but the other is very different. The blue-black on the head, neck, back, wing-coverts, and tertials is replaced by olive-green, and the white on the nape is suffused with yellow. It is probably a bird of the year. SlTTA C.ES1A SINENSIS. Two Nuthatches collected by Herr Baun at Puching, one in March and the other in April, only differ in size, and that very slightly, from examples from South' Europe. They measure 2*95 inches in length of wing from carpal joint. The variations of colour iu the races of the Common Nuthatch appear to be climatic, and correspond to a remarkable degree with the July isothermal lines of mean temperature. Nuthatches moult only once in the year, and July is probably the month when most of the new feathers are formed. The Kamtschatkan race is the palest, as it is of the various climatic races of Parus palustris, Pgrr hula vulgaris, Pica cttudata, &c. It moults in a mean temperature of 54° to 58° |