436 Mr. J. D. D. La Touche— Field- Notes on 



merits of seven nests are : outer length from 6 to 8 in., outer 

 greatest breadth 2f x 3 in. to 3f X 4 in., circumference 9£ to 

 11 in.; inner height 3j to 4 in., inner diameter 2 to 2^ in. ; 

 aperture 1 in., base of aperture to base of nest 3^ to 4 in. 



The number of eggs in a clutch is from six to eight In 

 colour they are pinkish white or pure white, minutely 

 speckled and streaked, as a rule, with pale Indian-red or 

 violet-red, the marks being nearly always more numerous 

 about the larger end. One of my clutches of eight eggs has 

 hardly any sign of speckling and has faded to a dull greyish 

 white, with a few faint specks in one or more cases. 

 Another clutch of eight eggs is somewhat profusely speckled 

 and streaked with pale red and underlying violet-red, seven 

 of the eggs having a thick zone of confluent marks round 

 the larger end. When fresh the eggs have no gloss. They 

 vary from a short broad-ovate shape to a long ovate, but are 

 usually almost perfectly ovate. Fifty-three eggs average 

 056 x 0-44". The largest of these is 0-60 x 0'46" and the 

 smallest 0'50 x 0-42". 



The young birds shot on May 20 answer so closely to the 

 description of A. vinacea (Verr.) that it appears to me highly 

 probable that A. vinacea was founded on the young of 

 A. glaucogularis. Pere David, in f Les Oiseaux de la Chine,' 

 p. 292, while remarking on the difference of plumage between 

 A. vinacea and A. glaucogularis, which led him to consider 

 the former a good species, apparently suspected that this 

 might be the case, and ended his remarks on A. vinacea with 

 these words : t{ la question neanmoins merite d'etre etudiee." 



12. iEGiTHALUs consobrinus Swinhoe. 

 Styan, Ibis, 1894, p. 333. 



On April 27, 1900, I shot a solitary male of this species, 

 which was perched in a small tree by a pond in the loess 

 country. I met with no other specimens until February 15, 

 three years later, when I saw hundreds in the reeds by the 

 river a few miles below Chinkiang. They were feeding 

 among the reeds, and three which I shot had their stomachs 

 full of seeds. Now and then a numerous party would fly up 



