Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^~c. 305 



news of the wonderful Parrot yet, I think I told you of the 

 three Parrakeets shot at Canton the summer before last, but, at 

 the best, they can only be looked upon as occasional visitants to 

 that neighbourhood. I suspect Loriculus puniculus has no more 

 claim to Canton as a habitat than have the Lories, the Wax- 

 wings, the Peacocks, or the Argus Pheasants that are offered 

 for sale in that city. I could send a fine collection of so-called 

 Chinese birds, if I only had an agent at Hong Kong or 

 Canton to watch the bird-shops ; but I never heed the assigna- 

 tion of birds to particular localities, unless I have the authority 

 of some person that has actually met with them in a wild state, 

 and has proofs that they are not caged birds let loose. The 

 Japanese Deer and some other species of Cervidce may be found 

 on the hills of Hong Kong ; but we should be very wrong in con- 

 sidering them indigenous there ; for if we only take the trouble 

 to inquire, we may learn that several animals of this kind have 

 been set free in that colony by some sport-loving Europeans. 



" In passing through Amoy,I met with, for the first time, a fine 

 male of the Muscicapa hylocharis of the 'Fauna Japonica'; and as 

 you may like to publish a description of this interesting species, 

 taken from a fresh example, I will transcribe the note from my 

 journal : — 



" Muscicapa hylocharis, Schlegel, c?> Amoy, November 27, 

 1861. Looks at first sight like the male of Erythrosterna parva, 

 but there is no white on the tail. Length, 5*1 ; wing, 2*85; tail, 2*2 

 in. Bill blackish clove-brown ; legs and claws ditto, with paler 

 soles. Inside of the mouth yellowish flesh-colour, with a blackish 

 rim to the tongue. Ear roundish, of the size of the eye, the diame- 

 ter bone being nearly at right angles to the direction of the bill, 

 and the crescent-shaped operculum placed on the arc furthest 

 from the bill. Throat and breast yellowish robin-colour, rather 

 golden, paler on the axillai'ies and flanks ; pale and mixed with 

 olive over and under the eye, the cheek being mottled with, 

 darker olive. Belly and vent white. Upper parts brownish 

 olive-green. Wings and tail hair-brown, the former margined 

 with yellowish ochre, more strongly on the tertiaries, small co- 

 verts and secondary coverts. 



" Dissection. — CEsophagus about "1 inch wide, enlarging at 



