1870. } MR. R. SWINHOE ON NEW CHINESE BIRDS. 133 
I got my single specimen of this species at Hankow from a bird- 
catcher, who was picking the birds off the trees in the foreign settle- 
ment by means of a little bird-lime stuck to the top of a bamboo-pole. 
He had secured only one of this species, but had plenty of Munie 
and young Sparrows. 
4. PARUS VENUSTULUS, sp. nov. 
Head, throat, breast, neck, and back deep black, glossed with 
bluish purple. Cheeks and sides of neck, edges of central occipital 
feathers, a large spot on centre of nape, and some of the upper dor- 
sals at tips, white. A little yellow washes the nuchal and dorsal 
white. Lower back, rump, and scapulars fine bluish grey, touched 
with yellowish green. Wing-coverts and tertiaries deep black ; the 
lesser coverts tipped with large spots of white, the greater coverts 
and tertiaries with light greenish yellow. Quills dark hair-brown ; 
secondaries margined with yellowish green, and lightly tipped with 
white; primaries yellowish green at basal margins, narrowly edged 
with white further upwards, and tipped with whitey-brown. Upper 
tail-coverts deep black, faintly tipped with green. Tail black, deeper 
and richer on basal half, edged with greenish grey on apical portion, 
and tipped with yellowish; the fifth rectrix with white on central 
edge, increasing outwardly to the first or outermost, which has the 
greater part of basal half of outer web white. Under parts fine sul- 
phur-yellow, olivaceous on the sides and flanks. Avxillaries and carpal 
edge yellowish white. Under edges of inner webs to quills white. 
Bill indigo-black. Irides blackish brown. Legs, toes, and claws 
deep lead-colour. Bill typical, but large and thick for so small a 
species. Tail graduated inwardly or forked, the central rectrices °1 
shorter than the outermost. Wing: first quill very short ; second °2 
shorter than the third and fourth, which are nearly equal and longest. 
Length about 4 inches; wing 2°65; tail 1°6; bill -35, thick ‘15; 
tarse ‘64. Claws curved, strong; hind claw moderate. 
This charming species occurred throughout the precipitous moun- 
tain-gorges through which the great river runs from Kweifoo in 
Szechuen to Ichang in Hoopih. I found it at the latter place in 
company with Parus minor. It is a very active little species, and 
has quite a peculiar sibilant note. Its yellow belly recalls Parus 
monticola of the Himalayas, but it wants the black mesial stripe. 
I could scarcely believe at first that I had got a distinct species, as in 
Formosa we find the P. insperatus, which is little more than a race 
of the P. monticola, and I expected that a black and yellow Tit from 
Central China would be either that or the Himalayan bird itself. 
5. AlGITHALUS CONSOBRINUS, sp. nov. 
Male. Crown light grey, with a few blackish streaks and a few 
broader white ones. A black line runs over the bill, lores, under 
the eye, over the ear-coverts, and a little beyond. Above the black 
over the bill a white line occurs, passing in a distinct eyebrow over and 
beyond the eyes. Under the black line a white one starts from the 
base of the lower mandible, and extends onward to meet the eyebrow 
white beyond the black ear-coverts. Back and scapulars light russet 
