1863.] LITTLE-KNOWN BIRDS FROM CHINA. 91 



centres of the feathers carrying very broad stripes of brownish black. 

 In the majority of skins, the feathers of the hack are broadly edged 

 with yellowish white ; breast and flanks with chestnut-ochre, spotted 

 on the former and streaked on the latter with brownish black ; the 

 spots run in single line up either side of the lower neck close to 

 the bill ; eye- streak, lore, cheeks, and under neck ochreous ; central 

 tail-feathers blackish brown, edged with olive-chestnut ; the outer 

 lateral being nearly white, with a darker outer web ; the second 

 lateral has only abroad longitudinal pale streak along the inner web; 

 wings blackish brown, edged with olive-brown, the coverts and some 

 of the tertiaries being broadly edged and tipped with cream-white, 

 forming a double bar across the wing ; under wing for the most part 

 whitish, with a shght rust-tinge. Bill, upper mandible, and tip of 

 lower deep brown ; edge of upper and basal two-thirds of lower pale 

 flesh-colour; inside of mouth pale yellowish; eye-rim blackish brown; 

 iris deep hazel ; ear oval, aperture occupying the half furthest from 

 bill ; legs and claws brownish flesh-colour. Some specimens are more 

 strongly washed with rusty ochreous, especially on the under wing 

 and under tail-coverts. Some have more olive on the upper parts 

 than "others. They vary also in size and intensity of the blackish 

 markings, as also in the pale yellow edgings to the dorsal feathers ; 

 but none depart from the well-marked general characters. This 

 Chinese bird may perhaps be considered one of the most striking 

 and handsome species of the difficult and already well-stocked genus 

 Anthus. 



Salicaui^. 



Calamoherpe fumigata, n. sp. 



This migratory species, which passes Amoy in May to the interior 

 of China, I obtained in sufficient abundance in 1861. I place it in 

 this genus, as both in size and form it is more nearly allied to our 

 C. orientalis, Schleg., and the C. tiirdoides of Europe than to any 

 others of the Salicarice that I am acquainted with. Its hind toe is 

 much shorter than that of C. orientalis, and its hind claw smaller ; 

 its tail is much more graduated, each feather ending in a long pro- 

 jecting tip. Perhaps no birds puzzle the classifier so much as do 

 the diff'erent species of Reed-birds. Almost each species may be 

 regarded as occupying a section of its own. I do not of course in 

 this include races of the same form from diff'erent localities, which 

 have been ranked as species, as,' for instance, the Calamoheri^e tiir- 

 doides, and its eastern representative, the C. orientalis. It is just 

 as well for the facility of determination that such birds should be 

 separated, and this cannot well be done without the trinomial no- 

 menclature, unless subgenera are formed for their specific reception. 

 As naturalists are so averse to admit the double specific name (one 

 of the species, and the other of the locality whence any bird is de- 

 rived, which shows a sufficient variation to entitle it to be noted, 

 though scarcely strong enough to permit of its being styled a sepa- 

 rate species), we must continue forming subgenera, — though, in 



