^°go5^-J Prom Magazines, &c. 2I9 



September. Unfortunately the mother and one of the youngsters 

 subsequently died, but the rest of the family continued to ilourish. 

 The young are described as " dressed in shades of brown, with 

 light under parts; the two youngest being rather Sparrow-like in 

 colour. Of the rest, one shows rather dark ear patches, another 

 faint signs of them, and the upper part of the breast is dark, 

 but not one has a trace of the pretty mottled breast of the adult 

 bird, or the pinkish tint of the under parts." The eggs were 

 laid in a rush basket, placed somewhat high in the aviary. In 

 the January issue of the same magazine Mr. W. E. Teschemaker 

 furnishes an interesting note on the nesting of the rare Yellow- 

 rumped Finch {^Munia flaviprynuia). Mr. Teschemaker describes 

 the female, which is tiie smaller bird, as much darker and more 

 streaky on the back of the head, whilst the male has the upper 

 part of the breast a much brighter, warmer buff than the lower 

 part, the hen having a uniform shade over the whole of her 

 breast. A nest, elliptical in shape, was constructed in a box 

 shrub, about 4 feet from the ground, and was exceedingly well 

 compacted of long stems of freshly pulled grass, not being lined 

 in any way. Eventually four eggs, pure white in colour and 

 sharply pointed at one end, were laid, of which three were 

 hatched. As the eggs of this Finch have not yet been 

 technically described, Mr. Teschemaker sent other examples to 

 the British Museum. In both Mrs. Howard Williams's and Mr. 

 Seth-Smith's aviaries the same season, several nests of the 

 Yellow-rumped Finch were built and eggs laid ; in the latter 

 aviary young were hatched, though not reared. It was observed 

 that the Yellow-rumped Finch resembles its cousin, the Chestnut- 

 breasted, in song, love-dance, and call note. 



Birds of Philippine Islands. — In the publications of the 

 Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila, Mr. Richard C. 

 M'Gregor, Natural History Collector of the Bureau, has pub- 

 lished an important contribution on (i) " lairds from Mindoro 

 and Small Adjacent Islands " and (2) " Notes on Three Rare 

 Luzon Birds." In the former article are recorded over 100 

 species of birds observed or collected by the author and his 

 party along the Baco River, in the northern part of Mindoro, 

 during March, April, and May, 1905. The first collecting station 

 was a short distance from the coast, locally known as Chicago. 

 Although two specimens of a new Swift {Cluetunx) and a 

 specimen of the beautiful little Bronze-Cuckoo {Clialcococcyx 

 xanthorhyncJius) were secured, Chicago was not satisfactory for 

 collecting purposes, therefore a move was made well up the 

 river to Balete. Here a camp was made — in fact, a house was 

 built — -in the virgin forest, as near as possible to the base of 

 Mount llalcon. This locality proved more satisfactory than the 



