

1870. } MR. R. SWINHOE ON NEW CHINESE BIRDS. 131 
2. Descriptions of seven new Species of Birds procured 
during a cruise up the River Yangtsze (China). By R. 
Swinuoe, F.Z.S. 
(Plate XI.) 
The following new species of birds were obtained by me during a 
voyage up the River Yangtsze in the spring of last year. 
1. Lantus WALDENI, sp. nov. (Plate XI.) 
Crown, hind neck, and upper back clear bluish grey. Frontal 
band stretching above and below the eye, and covering the entire 
ear-coverts, deep black. Back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail- 
coverts fine brownish chestnut, transversely barred with black. 
Wing-feathers hair-brown, broadly margined with chestnut-brown, a 
few of the coverts having black bars, and the tertiaries a wash of 
chestnut with faint bars; the primaries are a darker brown, with 
narrower edgings. ‘Tail chestnut-brown, faintly barred, the four 
outer rectrices on each side being tipped with white. Upyer parts, 
axillaries, and carpal edge of wing a pretty cream-colour, almost 
primrose in some specimens; under edges of the inner webs of re- 
miges pale salmon-colour. Four out of my five males show a few 
immature bars on the tibial feathers ; and one has a long cream patch 
on the lores, while another has just the indication of it. 
One of the two females has immature bars on the sides of the 
under parts, has a large cream patch on the lores, and a white half- 
eyebrow in rear of the eye-line. The other has the basal half of the 
under mandible pale, a smaller lore spot, the white half-eyebrow, 
and but a touch of bars on the sides of the breast. 
Only one of the males shows the white half-eyebrow, and this the 
most fully adult one. We may say, then, that the sexes are alike, 
the males being more richly coloured. 
Length about 6°75; wing 3-4; tail 3°1, outermost rectrix being 
“65 shorter than the centrals; bill in front -6, its depth *33; tarse 
*83. Sexes of about equal size. 
Bill deep blackish indigo. Eyes large and full, with blackish- 
brown irides. Legs pale leaden, with a fleshy tinge. 
I first saw this species in Fungtoo Hien, Szechuen, on the Sth of 
May. ‘They were chattering in the trees in notes very similar to 
those of L. lucionensis. All those first procured were males. On 
the 11th of May, at Changshow Hien, further up the river, I got 
the first female; and on the 20th, at Chungking, they were paired 
and beginning to breed, and I observed plenty of them. When at 
Peking some months before, I noticed a single specimen in Pére 
David’s museum, which had been procured in that neighbourhood. 
The nearest ally of this interesting little Butcher-bird* is the Lanius 
* Since the aboye was read I have seen an adult L. magnirostris, Less., of 
Malacca, in Lord Walden’s colle@tion, which leads me to believe that our Szechuen 
bird is that species in summer plumage. All the Malacca specimens that I have 
seen, from their light bills, are evidently in winter plumage, and in most cases 
immature. 
