Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^c. 



.teral ones very short, the four middle long and subulate, one 

 titting into the groove of the other. Length 16'5 inches; wing 

 6"75 inches ; tail 8*5 inches. This bird is considerably smaller 

 than my specimens from the Himalayas -, but it corresponds with 

 them, feather for feather, with the exception of a black mottling 

 on the under edge of the wing, which does not occur in any of 

 three Himalayan examples I compared it with. 



I have received a small box of birds from Consul Caine at 

 Swatow. The most interesting were two males of the Chefoo or 

 North China Red-legged Partridge. I have compared them with 

 specimens of Caccahis cliukar from the Himalayas, and find 

 that the two are identical, except that the Chinese bird has a 

 rather longer bill. I think we must therefore dispense with a 

 new species on this occasion. The next in interest was a muti- 

 lated specimen of Coturnix caineana. The rest were the follow- 

 ing common species : — Otus hrachyotus, Nycticorax griseus, 

 Anthus agilis, Ruticilla aurora, Melophus melanicterus, Sturnus 

 cineraceus, Petrocincla manilensis, and Halcyon smyrnensis. 



About the same time I received from Taiwan-foo a pair of 

 Bamboo-Partridges {Bambusicola sonorivox). They are lighter 

 in colour all over than Tamsuy specimens, have the wings more 

 spotted with white, and in smaller blotches. The quills are less 

 marked with brown, and show signs of youth, which, after all, 

 may be the true cause of these differences. 



From the mountains in this neighbourhood I have got a pair 

 of Oreoperdix crudigularis (Ibis, 1864, p. 426), entirely similar 

 to those from the Tamsuy mountains. The bright orange-red 

 of the legs extended in these birds quite to the tip of the claws. 

 My Tamsuy collector further brought me an egg of this species, 

 dropped by a female which was shot. It is white and smooth, 

 with a dingy cloudiness appearing as it were through the shell. 

 In form it is strictly ovate, and measures 1'6 in, in length by 

 1*1 in. in breadth. 



On the 14th May, on the hill-side, I flushed a Button-Quail, 

 which by its peculiar manner showed that I had disturbed it 

 either from its eggs or young. I looked about, and soon came 

 across a young one, and shortly after three more concealed 

 under some dead leaves. I hurried home, and, supplying my- 



