ON AN OVERLOOKED SPECIES OF REGULOIDES. 133 



the young would, probably acquire this plumage in the early 

 spring moult. I have shot great numbers of Reguloides and 

 Phylloscopi undergoing a spring moult. I am not sure whether 

 quill and tail feathers are then changed ; certainly the body 

 feathers are, including the wing-coverts. 



Sylvine birds, with a spotted nestling plumage, moult the first 

 autumn, and whether they undergo a spring moult again I don't 

 know ; but I have shot Stone Chats moultiug in March. I am 

 pretty sure the migratory Phylloscopi and Reguloides do not 

 undergo an autumnal moult in the year that they are hatched. 

 I once brought up a young P. trochilus from the nest, which 

 a cat had found out ; she had eaten two of them. This little 

 bird was as usual very yellow ; and when the time for migrat- 

 ing had come, there was not the slightest signs of a moult, 

 but it was in perfect plumage. It had become so tame that 

 I had great difficulty in losing the little bird amongst some 

 bushes where I turned him off. When he appeared busy catch- 

 ing insects and searching the leaves, I ran off, only to find 

 him on my shoulder again before I had gone a hundred yards. 

 At last I avoided him, and I hope he lived to acquire mature 

 plumage. He had abundance of insect food, and used to clear 

 the window panes of flies in a very short time every day. 

 When satisfied he would go to rest on my shoulder, and stay 

 there till I replaced him in his cage. I mention this to show that 

 he was well fed, and that the moult was not retarded for want 

 of good food. 



It is not always easy to separate the young birds of R. humei 

 from those of R. superciliosus ; for the former then has its 

 maximum amount of green and yellow, still some of the tawny or 

 rufous tone can always be found about the head or neck 

 enough to separate the bird ; but let the mature plumage once 

 be acquired, and all difficulty vanishes, and the two birds are 

 then very easy to deal with, for they are most pronounced. 



R. humei varies much as regards rufous tone ; some birds 

 having this colour much more pronounced than others. Simi- 

 larly, with regard to dark head markings of R. superciliosus, 

 there is great individual variation, to such an extent as to lead 

 to the idea that the very dark lugubris-like ones were another, 

 and a third bird, but I think this can hardly be the case. 

 European ornithologists, who have seen much of this little bird, 

 may be able to throw further light on the subject. 



Mr. Hume sent me one of tbe birds I shot off the nest in 

 Cashmere. There were four eggs which I marked with a small 

 cross. The bird is decidedly R. humei. A Cashmere example, 

 procured in Cashmere by Doctor Jcrdon in 1867, is also the 

 same species. 



