The L.C.B.A. Shozv.



6 5



same bird, which only took v.h.c. This bird is very like our

Robin, but has a short reddish tail and sooty abdomen ; Mrs.

Miller’s bird was coloured in other respects just like our Red¬

breast, and had a similar plump shape ; the other specimen was

darker and much slimmer, more like a Nightingale in build—I

really don’t know which type is correct, however, in such a rare

bird! There were two Temmiuck’s or Loo-choo Robins ( E.

homadori) in the class, of which Mrs. Miller’s took v.h.c. M.

Pauwel’s Malayan Fairy Blue-bird ( Irena turcosa) was third, a

most magnificent creature in its enamelled blue and velvet black

plumage ; but as the said plumage was rough on the underparts,

I should have preferred Mr. Maxwell’s quaint little Coppersmith

Barbet (Xantholcema haemaiocephala), the first ever shown, though

the commonest of Barbets in the wild state, being heard even in

street trees in Calcutta. Not bigger than a Greenfinch, its green

plumage is diversified on the head and throat by scarlet and

3’ellow. It is easy enough to keep and feed on fruit and bread-

and-milk, but will not stand satoo. Besides these rarities, this

wonderful class contained a Blue-throated Flycatcher, a Cuban

Trogon, an Indian White-breasted Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis )

a Hauxwell’s Hangnest, a pair of Verditer Flycatchers (Stoparola

melanops), an Indian Yellow-cheeked Tit ( Machlolophus xantho-

genys) and a White-crested Jay-thrush. The Kingfisher was

particularly interesting, as belonging to a group rarely shown,

but was not in show plumage, the tail being rather rough ; but it

is a young bird, and will doubtless improve in steadiness. This

species feeds as much or more on land animals as fish ; in plu¬

mage it is blue and chocolate with white breast. The belt and

feet are coral-red in the adult, dusky in the young.


The Foreign Hybrid class contained only two kinds, two

ugly little crosses between the Zebra Waxbill and Silver-bill,

brown with black short tails, dull yellow bills, and a Tit inter¬

mediate between Pleske’s Tit (Pams pleskei) and the lovely Azure

Tit (P. cyanus ) presumably a wild-bred hybrid. Pleske’s Tit is

much like a Blue-tit, but paler, the Azure is white with blue

wings and tail, the latter being longer than in other members of

the genus Parus. Both are Continental.


The “ Pairs for Foreign Hybrid breeding” class had five



