1863.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON THE BIRDS OF CHINA. 283 



sufficient as a character. V. fimbriata, as Jerdon remarks, does 

 appear smaller; but all skins that I have seen from the Malacca 

 collectors are shrunk in size, owing to their mode of preservation. 

 Like the Grauealus macei, which I fully expect to meet with some 

 day in China, this bird has a wide range over the greater part of 

 tropical Asia. In South China, from Canton to Amoy, it is only a 

 summer visitant, spending the season of nidification with us, and 

 returning southwards again in the autumn. I have a nice series of 

 the different stages of plumage it undergoes. I have a bird of the 

 year, collected by Captain Blakiston in Canton, which is of a black- 

 ish grey, each feather carrying a bar of black and a broad cream tip ; 

 the quills and tail are greyish brown glossed with green, the former 

 edged and tipped with cream-colour, and the latter broadly tipped 

 with white ; the under tail-coverts are cream-buff, irregularly barred 

 with light black ; many of the quill-feathers are edged inwardly with 

 white, forming an indistinct under-wing bar. In this stage the bird 

 appears to form a link between the young of Oreocincla and Bicrurus. 

 As it advances to maturity, the spots disappear, the plumage becomes 

 light smoky grey, with a wash of rusty buff and faint bars on many 

 of the under feathers ; the white on the under wing increases and 

 forms a distinct bar. In this stage it more resembles the second 

 plumage of Pericrocotus cinereus, which in the young state also has 

 a mottled plumage, but carries a white under-wing bar through all 

 dresses. In the adult bird the white bar disappears entirely ; the 

 wings and tail become a glossy green-black, with broad white tips to 

 all but the two central rectrices ; and the rest of the plumage deep- 

 ens into a bluish smoke-grey, much paler on the under tail-coverts. 

 The female is paler and less glossy than the male, but in other re- 

 spects similar. The adult bird, when viewed seated on the bough 

 of a tree, launching forth on wing after an insect and returning to 

 its post, brings forcibly to mind the habits of the Bicruri. But at 

 other times it may be seen hanging about the ends of branches, 

 searching the leaves, and taking short flits into the air. On these 

 latter occasions the younger birds, especially with their white wing- 

 bars, might be easily mistaken for large grey Pericrocoti with 

 stunted tails. 



116. Pericrocotus cinereus, Lafr.; Swinh. Ibis, 1861, p. 42. 



Found in summer throughout China as far north as the Amoor. 

 Procured originally from the Philippines, to which it probably 

 wanders in the winter. In autumn and spring, flocks are frequently 

 met with about Canton, Amoy, and Formosa. Its plumage is black, 

 grey, and white, with an occasional tinge of saffron on the flanks and 

 under-wing bar. Curiously enough, this yellow tinge is brighter 

 on the younger birds and females than on the males. The male is 

 distinguished from the female by its broad white forehead, by its 

 black occiput and hindneck, and by the rest of its plumage being 

 deeper and glossier. The youngest bird I have is from Pekin, in 

 which the under plumage is faintly barred, and the tertiaries barred 

 with black and tipped with white. In this the under wing-coverts 



