156 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Birds from Hakodadi. 



out during the day. The little captives have no song ; but 

 they amuse by their incessant acti\dty, and by the Tit-like 

 habit they are fond of exhibiting of holding a seed firmly be- 

 tween their feet while they hammer on it with the bill until it 

 breaks. They are often brought in cages from Japan to China. 



15. Lesser Ox-eye. Parus minor, T. & S. 



A male, from Hakodadi, of February. This has the second 

 tail-feather only tipped with white ; but the amount of Avhite 

 on this feather varies. I have one specimen from China 

 (Tingehow) in which the second feather on one side of the tail 

 has very much more white than the corresponding feather on 

 the other side. 



IG. Northern Marsh-Tit. Parus borealis, Selys. 



Blakiston's specimen was shot in January ; and I have one 

 of Whitely^s from Hakodadi, shot in December. They both 

 have the black extending down the hind neck, with a whitish 

 margin, the light back, and whitish edging to secondary wing- 

 quills that distinguish the northern form from the time Marsh- 

 Tit. It is curious, however, that about Peking we get the 

 true Parus palustris, L., which I carelessly identified before 

 with P. kamtschatkensis, Bp. (This last I now take to be the 

 same as my Pcecile baicalensis, Ann. N. H. ser. 4, vol. vii. 

 p. 257, 1871.) The Russian ornithologists only record P. 

 borealis from Siberia ; but it is very certain that both forms 

 must come across the Asiatic continent; for if we take it 

 for granted that P. borealis has been developed out of P. jja- 

 lustris, we could scarcely expect a reversal of the process. 



17. Bottle-Tit. Acredula caudata (Linn.). 



The white-headed European species, which I have also from 

 Amoorland, from Von Schrenck. O. trivirgatus, like our 

 English form, occurs in South Japan. 



18. Japanese Pied Wagtail. Motacillajaponica, Swinh. 

 Mr. Blakiston has sent five of this species, three of which 



he has presented to mc ; let us mark them for convenience' 

 sake A, B, C. A is a female shot in April, and at first glance 

 mi«ht easilv be taken for the grev-backed M. ocularis of 



