NOVELTIES. 515 



The following are the dimensions recorded by its discoverer 

 from a fresh specimen, a male, of the present species, Stoliczka's 

 Slender-billed Tit :— 



"Length, 46; wins', 2*1 ; tail, 2"05 ; expanse, 6*2 ; bill, at 

 front, 035 ; height of bill, that is of both mandibles closed, mea- 

 sured over the centre of the nostrils, - l ; tarsus, 0'7 ; hind toe 

 and claw, 0*47 ; claw only, straight from root to point, 0*25 ; 

 mid toe and claw, 053. Female exactly the same size. I- 

 rides, bright red ; bill, black ; legs and feet horny blackish 

 brown." 



Wings typical, 1st quill, 1*0 inch, 2nd quill, 0*37, 3rd quill, 

 0*08, shorter than the 5th, which is longest. 



The exterior tail feathers 05 shorter than the central pair; 

 the next 0*25 shorter ; and the rest regularly graduated between 

 these and the central pair. 



In the male, the forehead with a very broad superciliary band 

 running backwards over the eye and ear-coverts almost to the 

 nape, pale straw yellow or yellowish white; the lores and stripe 

 through the eye, but extending only a short distance behind it, 

 black or dusky ; the crown and occiput vinaceous ruddy; the 

 chin, throat, ear-coverts, sides, flanks, lower tail-coverts, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts the same vinaceous ruddy, brighter and 

 almost with a golden tinge on the flanks and rump ; all the 

 feathers, except on the chin and the middle of the throat and 

 the lower tail-coverts, fringed towards their tips, most broadly 

 and conspicuously on the rump, with pale smalt blue, some- 

 what duller on the flanks, and slightly duller still on the 

 sides of the throat and ear-coverts ; entire mantle a pale, 

 earthy, slightly olivaceous brown, the dusky bases of the fea- 

 thers often showing through more or less ; the wings pale brown ; 

 the primaries inconspicuously margined on their outer webs 

 with a paler and slightly olivaceous tinge ; the secondaries and 

 tertiaries similarily but often more noticeably margined on their 

 outer webs with a faint yellowish or rufeseent tinge; tail black ; 

 the central feathers with a faint greenish grey shade, and all but 

 the two exterior pair distinctly tinged at their margins, towards 

 their bases, with a dull pale greenish blue ; the exterior tail 

 feathers, with nearly the whole of the outer webs and the inner 

 webs at the tips, a slightly sullied brownish or yellowish white; 

 the next pair distinctly, but narrowly, margined, at the tip, 

 and on the terminal two-thirds of the outer web with the same 

 yellowish sullied white; the next pair with a very perceptible 

 trace of a similar pale margin ; the breast, middle of abdomen, 

 and vent pale fawn color ; tibial plumes slightly vinaceous 



G 



