1920.J Birds of Nor Ih-East ChihU. 883 



male with blue flanks and the centre of the under [)arts 

 mixed blue and red, vary in length of wing from 4'60 io 

 4*69 in., culmen ()-72 to 88 in. The second [)rin'.ary in all 

 but one is just under the 5th (in the exception, it is exa(;tly 

 between the 5tli and Gth). A female measures : wing 4-'47 in.^ 

 culmeu OvO in. This scries confirms my supposition 

 (Ibis, 1913, p. 370; that the small race of this Rock-Thrush 

 breeds in northern Chiiuij none of the eight or nine birds 

 collected appruacliing in size the large birds taken at 

 Shaweishan, which were most probably bound for Japan. 



Two nestlings were brought to me on the 25th of June 

 and another somewhat younger ou the 2nd of July, 1917. 

 These birds, which were already very tame when they arrived, 

 became extremely familiar and charming pets. I fed tliem 

 chiefly on green-beau paste mixed with hard-boiled egg yolk 

 and gat^e them also bread and millv and cho[)[)ed raw beef, 

 and grassho])pei's when these were in season. They fed 

 eagerly and were very voracious. When they could feed 

 by themselves, they (Jontinued to take food from my hand, 

 and often indulged iu a tug-of-war amoug themselves, two 

 of them getting hohl of a piece of meat or a grasshopper arul 

 pulling until one of them remained in sole possession of: the 

 morsel. After a time, I placed them in a large cage with 

 some of my other birds. Tliey were inclined to bully these, 

 and one day I found one pulling about my Rhopophilus 

 jjekinensis, which it would probably have killed if I had not 

 interfered. I think one of these little thrushes was respon- 

 sible for the death of a sickly bird which was in the same 

 cage. One day, one of them, while at liberty in the room, 

 caught hold of a small uu)use I had in a box and killed it. 

 When I took these birds down to Shanghai in the following 

 October none of them showed any sign of [)utting on the 

 adult plumage. A wild-caught adult never became tame, 

 but soon learnt to eat dried " waterboatmen ^^ and law beef. 

 Although I had this bird at liberty iu my room it never 

 attempted to sing, and I released it after a month or two. 



i\n incom[)lete elut(di of two fresh eggs was brought to me 

 cm the 29Lh of May, 1917, a full clutch of live eggs. 



