Avicultural Notea



249



What I am more particularly writing about at the moment,

however, is a very rare Amazon from Western Ecuador. I think it

is particularly interesting to Aviculture, and have sent the bird to

Mr. Allen Silver to keep for me. It is Chrysotis lilacina, also termed

coccineofrons and viridigenalis. I do not think the species has ever

been illustrated in your Magazine. If the bird has not been previously

figured I think it is sufficiently rare to deserve attention.


[By the generosity of Mr. Rogers arrangements are being made to

have the bird illustrated in the Magazine.]



AYICUI ;ru RAI. NOTES


Two Rare Birds. —Among birds in the Indian consignment which

arrived in August, 1919, I noticed and acquired two very uncommon

specimens: A hen Chestnut-breasted Rock Thrush ( Petrocincla

erythrogastra) and a Maroon Oriole ( Oriolus trailli). Mr. Astley very

generously gave me a mate for the former. The Oriole I could not at

first make out, and was unable to look it up whilst in town. Mr. D.

Seth-Smith very kindly helped me out of my difficulty by identifying

it from a rough sketch. The bird has a Hangnest type of bill, and its

call is rather musical. It behaves like a Starling when alarmed by a dog,

and then calls out harshly. The figure of it in Gould’s Asiatic Birds

does not show the very accentuated bill to advantage. I have no record

of it coming over alive before, and should be glad to know if it has been

previously kept in any English collection. —Allen Silver.


Finch Larks. —Some time back I saw an article in the Avicultural

Magazine on the breeding of African Finch Larks by Mr. Shore Baily

(Avicultural Magazine , April, 1919). The pair I have has bred with me

every year since 1915, rearing two young each time. If the first brood

fails they make a second nest. Before breeding they always ask for

mealworms, and this craving lasts till the young are fairly old. The pair

of young are generally a true pair, the cock moulting only in the second

year. In infancy he shows a brownish base over the bill ; the hen is

even-coloured.—G. A. Heumann.


The Fat of the Emu. —As regards the layers of fat beneath the

skin of the Emu and attached to it as stated by Dr. Butter in the July



