366 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Chinese Ornithology . 



The female has shorter wings than the male, and longer toes. 

 The labels bear the name Charadrius caspius, Pall., and I 

 suppose the river named is somewhere near the Caspian Sea 

 (I cannot find it on any map I have access to*). Both the 

 Russian specimens have the basal white patch on the outer 

 web of the remiges, so that there can be no doubt that Mr. 

 Harting is right, and Dr. O. Finsch, wrong in their iden- 

 tifications of two species ('Ibis/ 1870, p. 201, and 1872, 

 p. 146). The Russian bird is the true C. asiaticus of Pallas. 

 The characters given by Dr. Finsch for discriminating the 

 species are excellent, except that he has guessed the colour of 

 the legs of our bird from a dried skin. Neither of the illus- 

 trations to Mr. Harting' s paper on these Charadrii (' Ibis/ 

 1870, p. 201) gives the complete summer plumage; and the 

 colour of the legs of his Eudromias veredus is of course also an 

 unfortunate guess. The pale collar round the neck, and the 

 white wing-spot, both of which are unaccountably omitted, 

 would in a drawing be far better distinctive characters. Where 

 Mr. Harting found my authority for the occurrence of the 

 western representative in " Northern China," I am unable to 

 divine. Such an error ought to have been corrected long ago. 



Out of our China list should be expunged the " White-eye/' 

 or " Ferruginous " Duck, Aithya ferina ; for I now find that 

 I took for it a female of Baer's Duck, Fulix baeri, and with- 

 out sufficient scrutiny admitted the species. In spite of Mr. 

 G. R. Gray, who insisted that it was a cross between Anas 

 boschas and Fulix cristata, Baer's Duck turns out to be a 

 good species ; but it is by no means common, for I have only 

 found four males and two females in the market. In my 

 description of the male in P. Z. S. 1871, p. 419, I have given 

 " greater wing-coverts white." It should be " secondaries 

 white." And in the line above, where the head and neck are 

 stated to be " black reflecting deep green," " and purple " 

 should be added. The description is otherwise correct ; but 

 it is as well to mention that the vent is pure white, and the 

 abdomen mottled across with brownish, and that in all my 

 specimens, both male and female, the angle of the chin is 



* Should not the name bo Svr-Daria i.e. the Jaxartes ? — P. L. S. 



