I 



I 



1863.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON THE BIRDS OF CHINA. 273 



quarters rest for a few clays on our Island. The large pale variety 

 stays the cold season with us ; the rich-tinted variety arrives early, 

 passes away, and returns late, thence showing that it has a long way 

 to travel southwards. The intermediate forms are less regular in 

 their movements. As the nesting-area is found to be more fixed 

 than their winter haunts, the same birds returning to breed year after 

 year to the same spot, it is not improbable that the extreme forms 

 of these races would be found to inhabit in summer areas widely 

 divided, the intermediate gaps being filled up with forms interme- 

 diate and approximating most nearly to those to which they were 

 nearest, until amalgamation would ensue. 



76. Anthus (Agrodroma) gustavi, Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1863, 

 p. 90. 



Touches at Amoy during the first fortnight of May, bound from 

 the south into the interior of Central China. 



77. Anthus blakistoni, Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1863, p. 90. 



Allied to A. ohseurus, Gmel. Procured by Captain Blakiston on 

 the Yangtsze. A species referred to A. aqiiaticus is noticed by von 

 Schrenck from Kamtschatka ; and the same is also given by Schlegel 

 from Japan. These may be identical with our species. 



78. Anthus cervinus. Pall. 



A winter bird in South China and Formosa, which passes the 

 summer in Kamtschatka and the northern regions. Von Schrenck 

 does not notice it in Amoorland. Flocks pass over Amoy as late 

 as the first week in May ; these are probably arrivals from the Indian 

 Archipelago, whence specimens in winter plumage have been received. 

 Before leaving us the bird undergoes an entire moult, when the eye- 

 brows, throat, and breast show a pale vinaceous mixed with more or 

 less ochreous, but unspotted. As the nuptial season comes on, the sil- 

 very tinge intensifies into a uniform dusty vinaceous, which encroaches 

 further on the lower parts. I have a fine series showing every gra- 

 dation between the pale-spotted winter and the fine nuptial dress. 



79. Anthus japonicus, Schleg. 



This is said to occur in North China and the Amoor, but I have 

 never procured any specimens of it. I have a strong suspicion that 

 it is only the winter dress of A. ceroiims. 



80. Anthus agilis, Sykes. 



This Tree-Pipit stays the winter in the south of China, and sum- 

 mers in the north, Amoorland, and Japan. The birds from the two 

 last have generally been noted by writers as A. arboreus ; and Bo- 

 naparte, in his ' Conspectus,' remarks on the Japanese form as " vix 

 distinctus." Our bird is the same as the Indian A. agilis, and can 

 scarcely be regarded as more than a race of the European A. arboreus. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1863, No. XVIII. 



