84 Mr. J. D. D. La Touclic on the 



birds which arc lying down jump up instinctively, and all 

 huddle together. I moved a group of five as gently as 

 possible with my foot, and one individual tumbled into the 

 soft mud two feet below a bank, where it lay for several 

 minutes, while its companions -walked away to the beach, 

 avoiding the freshwater-pools, into which they might have 

 plunged and made more rapid progress. A few minutes 

 later I returned just in time to see it ascending on all fours, 

 continuing the amble until out of harm's way. 



The delicate and conspicuous colours of the lower mandible 

 show gradations. In a group of nine I noted on February 

 2nd: — (a) black; [b) ivory-white; (c) fleshy to coral-red. 

 (a) had finished its moult, and seemed to be a young one, 

 with a rich golden-yellow lateral mark on the neck, {b) was 

 a bird of ordinary proportions, with a coral-red patch on one 

 side of the mandible at the distal end. (c) was a moulting 

 bird, but with nearly double the girth of others of the same 

 height, and was apparently one-third heavier. Instead of 

 golden yellow on its neck, it had white, feebly tinged with 

 yellow, and there was no gold line on the chest. I am 

 inclined to think that the colour-development goes from 

 black to red. In skinning these birds I noticed the dorsal 

 fat, where the feathers were black, was black, and in the 

 ventral region, beneath the white feathers, the adipose tissue 

 was white. In young birds the down remains longest on the 

 neck and flippers, and the whole plumage is not so bright as 

 that of the adult. The head and throat are grey, instead of 

 black, in the mature bird. 



II, — Notes on the Birds of North-west Fohkien. 

 By J. D. D. La Touche, C.M.Z.S. 



[Continued from ' The Ibis,' 1899, p. 431.] 



110. PyRRHULA NIPALENSIS HodgS. 



This Bullfinch was common enough during the first two 

 weeks of our stay at Kuatun, where we found it in small 

 flocks ; afterwards it apparently became scarce. Only two 

 were shot in May. 



