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Notes. — These little birds are fairly 

 common in the shrubbery in the 

 winter, though rarely more than one 

 is seen at a time. 



Other members of this family 

 which have been recorded from the 

 Yangtse Valley are : 



The Bhie Throat (Cyanosylvia 

 sueccia robusta) occurs as a rare 

 migrant. The male has a bright blue 

 throat, with a chestnut spot in the 

 center, a black and then a chestnut 

 band below. 



One other Woodchat (Erithacus 

 sibilans) sometimes passes on migration, 

 It is a small reddish brown bird with a 

 red tail. 



The Eastern Stonechat (Pratincola 

 maura) is arare migrant, and the Gray 

 Stonechat (Oreicola ferrea), breeds on 

 the hills of the upper Yangtse. 

 Neither of these are likely to be met 

 with. 



Family.lCinclldae, The Dippers. 



Dippers are compact, plump-bodied 

 birds, with very stout legs, short, 

 rounded, and very concave wings, and 

 a short tail of twelve feathers. They 

 are dicidedly Wren-like in appearance, 

 and like the Wrens have no rictal 

 bristles. The whole plumage is very 

 loose, with a thick covering of down 

 beneath the outer contour feathers. 



Their food consists chiefly of aquatic 

 insects and their larvae, taken from 

 the shallows of the swift streams which 

 they frequent. 



This a small family of a single genus, 

 and about a dozen species, divided 

 between the Old and the New Worlds. 

 China has three species, of which one 

 is found in the Yangtse Valley. 



