446 Mr. R. Swinhoe's Ornithological Notes made at Chefoo. 



This was probably the offspring of a late last year's nest; but it 

 goes to show that males as well as females of this species breed 

 in immature plumage. I procured a nestling on the 12th 

 July. This has a brownish bill^ with light leaden-coloured 

 legs and claws ; the underparts yellowish white, with black- 

 spots on the breast and belly. Back and crown green, with 

 blackish centres to the feathers, a yellowish band stretching 

 across the occiput. Wing-coverts dark green on outer webs, 

 black on inner with yellowish tips ; quills black edged whitish, 

 their coverts with dark green and tipped with yellow ; secon- 

 daries black on inner webs, and along inner half of outer webs. 

 Tail-coverts greenish yellow, rectrices black, with large yellow 

 terminal spots. On the 15th September I obtained a pair of 

 adults. The female is rather larger than the male, and can 

 at once be distinguished by her greenish mantle. 



41. Nymph Ground-Thrush. Pitta nympha, T. & S. Faun. 

 Japon. 



On the 13th August a Fitta was brought to me in a cage. 

 It was said to have come from Yeu-chow Foo in this province, 

 and had evidently been long in a cage, as the lower mandible 

 had outgrown the upper, and the bird had all the appearance 

 of a prisoner. It answered fairly to the description of P. 

 nympha in the ' Fauna Japonica,^ which was based on a drawing 

 taken by a Japanese artist at Nagasaki from a bird said to 

 have been brought from Corea. I announced this discovery 

 to the Secretary of the Zoological Society; and my note on the 

 subject was published in P. Z. S. 1873, p. 730. It devoured 

 grasshoppers greedily, and had a Availing cry like that of a 

 puppy dog in distress. On the 20th August it died, and 

 proved to be a male. 



That this bird is P. nympha there cannot be a shadow of a 

 doubt, answering as completely as it does to the figure and 

 description of that species in the ' Fauna Japonica.' Its sole 

 difference is in the want of the black chin ; but this addition 

 in the plate is evidently an artistic error. Its nearest ally is 

 my P. oreas, from Formosa, from which it chiefly differs in 

 being rather paler in the ground-colour of the underparts, and 



