Vol. xliii.J 102 



commLvtus having a wino- of 65-70 mm., aud that the o;reeii 

 on the back of P. commixtus is continued further down, and 

 that the flanks are darker — more washed with dirty cream- 

 colour or brownish grej. All other ornithologists who have 

 written on Far Eastern birds also name the Subtropical and 

 Tropical forms of the Far Eastern Great Tit " Parus major 

 commixtus iSwinhoe." I have not seen the type or original 

 description of Parus commixtus Swinhoe, but Swinhoe, in 

 P. Z. S. 1871, p. 361, writes that it is "like ccesius, but with 

 some of the green tint on the back that marks P. minor, in 

 fact, intermediate to the two species. Canton to Foochow." 

 This latter description being correct, Hartert's P. commixtus 

 is certainly not Swinhoe's. 



The bird described by Hartert as P. commixtus appears 

 to me to be the Common Tit of Fohkieu, a bird of which 

 Swinhoe writes (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 36L) as occurring from 

 " Amoy to Peking and westwards to Szechuen^' and in 

 P. Z. S. 1863, p. 270, as " found in Japan and from Chefoo 

 (Shantung Promontory) down to Foochow. In the latter 

 paper Swinhoe proceeds to mention the varieties that occur 

 between Canton and Amoy, and from what he writes it is 

 quite evident that he did not mean to describe as P. com- 

 mixtus the bird which is almost identical with the northern 

 bird and commonest at Foochow, and which in 1871 (con- 

 founding the Fohkien bird with the N. China one) he declared 

 to occur as far as Peking. 



As stated b}'" Hartert, the Common Tit of Fohkien is 

 smaller than the N. China form, Parus major artatus Thayer 

 and Bangs — it is also possibly, on an average, duskier above 

 and below. 



The wing and tail measurement of Parus major artatus 

 Thayer and Bangs, taken from specimens in my collection 

 are as follows : — 



N.E. Chihli : Wing, c? 69-73, ? 68-71 mm. 

 Tail, ^ 61-69, ? 62. 



Nine specimens, 

 thinkiang: Wing, c? , 68-73. 

 L. Yangtze : Tail, ^ , 61-66. 



Three specimens. 



