220 A LIST OF THE BIRDS OF PEGU. 
many other Chinese species, occurs very abundantly alone 
the banks of the canal wherever there is thick grass and 
deserted patches of cultivated land. In habits it resembles 
cursitans, but it has a very different note, and one easily 
recognizable from it. It flies in the air in the same eccentric 
manner as cursitans, 
The male in breeding plumage has the top of the head from 
the bill to the nape golden fulvous; the nape dusky fulvous ; 
ear-coverts whitish ; centre of the abdomen and under tail- 
coverts white. With these exceptions the whole lower surface 
is pale yellowish buff; the back and scapulars are dark 
brown, each feather broadly edged with grey ; wing-coverts 
and wings brown, edged with rufous grey ; tail very dark 
brown, almost black, each rectrix narrowly tipped with 
white ; rump and upper tail-coverts plain fulvous. 
The female in breeding plumage is different from the male 
in the following respects :—The top of the head is streaked 
with blackish brown; the nape is darker, and the tips to the 
tail feathers are double the width, nearly as wide in fact as 
in cursitans. The amount of streaking on the head varies 
somewhat, in some being very thick, in others rather spare. 
Mr. Swinhoe’s type was measured by Mr. Dresser, and 
recorded in the Birds of Europe in the article relating to 
C. cursitans. The wing measured 1°7 ; tail, 1°1; tarsus, ‘77 ; and 
culmen, °42. 
In two Pegu specimens, both males, the measurements 
were :—Length, 4:05, 3°85 ; expanse, 5°8, 5-7; tail, 125, 1°15; 
wing, 1:7, 1:75; tarsus, ‘7, °72; and bill from gape to tip, 
°h, {Opp 
The females are about the same size. 
The third, fourth, and fifth primaries are about equal and 
longest, the second is about ‘2 shorter, and the first primary mea- 
sures ‘4 in length, the tip projecting beyond the wing-coverts 
by 25. The outer tail feathers fall short of the tip of the 
tail by °25. 
I cannot describe the bird in winter plumage, but I think 
the male then has the head streaked like the female, for I have 
an April bird with a golden head, but with one black feather 
in the centre. The female probably undergoes no change. 
Breeding operations commence in the middle of May. On 
the 28th of this month I found two nests, one containing four 
egos, slightly incubated, and the other, two quite fresh. 
The nest is a small bag about four inches in height and two to 
three in diameter, with an opening about one inch in diameter near 
the top. The general shape of the nest is oval. It is composed 
entirely of the white feathery flowers of the thatch grass. 
The walls of the nest are very thin, but strong. ‘The nest is 
