1863.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON THE BIRDS OF CHINA. 281 



110. TURDUS RXJFICOLLIS, Pall. 



This Fieldfare I found in flocks about Pekin in the commencement 

 of the cold season (see The Ibis, 1861, p. 332, and 1863, p. 93). 

 I have never met with it in Southern China, and it is not noted from 

 either Japan or the Amoor. 



111. TuRDUs (Merula) mandarinus, Bp. Consp. Av. p. 275. 



Both sexes of this Blackbird have lemon-coloured bills, that of 

 the female being tipped with black. The female is usuall}' browner 

 than the male ; but the male himself is a dull brownish black, and 

 sometimes the two are uncommonly hard to distinguish, especially 

 before the immature bill has changed to yellow. This is a common 

 resident species throughout Southern China, from Canton to 

 Shanghai. I did not meet with it in Pekin, nor has it been noted 

 from the Amoor. It builds a nest like that of the common Black- 

 bird, but its eggs more resemble those of the Missel Thrush (T. 

 viscivorus). 



112. Petrocincla manilensis, Bodd. 



P. pandoo, Sykes. 

 P. affinis, Blyth. 



The Kock-Thrush of Formosa and of all the exposed islands has, 

 as far as I have ascertained, invariably a red belly in the adult male, 

 and answers to the P. manilensis of authors. It is found on the 

 Chinese coast, from Canton to Tientsin. But on the Chinese main, 

 some distance inland, the bird is blue, and undistinguishable from P. 

 pandoo, Sykes. Nearer the coast we have the intermediate race, P. 

 affinis of Blyth, with partly red under parts and somewhat more 

 graduated tail. From Amoy I have procured all three forms, and 

 every intermediate gradation. The females of all three are, to my 

 eyes, identical. Now the only way I can account for these three 

 so-called species inhabiting the same locality is, that, being near the 

 sea, the island constantly receives fresh individuals from the channel 

 islands, which interbreeding with the blue race, P. pandoo, produce 

 the third, P. affinis, and the intermediate forms. In song, habits, 

 and nesting the two extreme forms observed at Amoy and in For- 

 mosa are not to be separated ; and their females are so alike that it 

 strikes me that, to solve the difficulty, we must believe the two of one 

 common parentage, sequestrated by circumstances, and, owing to 

 climatal or other causes, to have undergone an amount of change in 

 their internal economy sufficient to alter the colour of their under 

 plumage, but that this change has not so far alienated the two races as 

 to prevent them interbreeding freely, and producing fertile offspring, 

 in places where they are thrown together. In my large series the 

 skins vary a good deal in size, proportions of bill, wings, tail, and legs. 

 P. pandoo is generally separated from the P. cyanea, but I do not 

 see on what sufficient grounds. Mr. Jerdon, in his ' Birds of India,' 

 has rightly enough connected them. It is easy to account for P. 

 affinis occurring in Burmah ; for we know that the red-bellied P. 



