Correspondence.



159



parativelv meagre : for this reason I think that it is of greater importance

to science to breed foreign than British birds, at any rate in the case of the

familiar species of our gardens. Ed. pro. tem.



BUSTARDS.


Sir, —Last year I wrote you about the death of a pet Bustard through

eating bootlaces, etc. To-day I have just lost another young bird: an

inspection of crop revealed one 3fin. wire nail, one 2jin., one ijin. and

one ijin.; also a half piastre coin and a piece of wire an inch long. This

should prove a warning to anyone possessing a Bustard.


W. G. PERCIVAL.



HEMIXUS VIRESCENS.


Sir,—I shall be glad if any member will give me information regard¬

ing a Grey' Bulbul, supposed to be Ixos virescens or Wliite-browed Brush

Bulbul. Habitat, habits, etc., also description of female. Mine sings

remarkably well, and is the quietest bird in a cage I have ever seen, sitting

for hours in one place. Eats fruit, soaked sultanas, mealworms, etc.


Edith Warren Vernon.



The female alone is described in the “ Catalogue of Birds in the

British Museum,” vol. VI., pp. 53-54; as follows: ‘•'■Adult female. Bright

olive-greenish above, wing-coverts and outer edges of quills darker olive

green than the back, the inner secondaries almost entirely dull olive-green ;

tail feathers blackish-brown, margined with a shade of olive, the outer

feathers tipped with whitish on the inner web, and for a little distance along

the latter; head and nape ashy' grey', slightly tinged with olive ; lores, eye¬

lid, and a faintly indicated eyebrow ashy whitish; ear-coverts dusky' brown,

plainly streaked with dull white; cheeks whitish, streaked with dusky

olive, with which the feathers are edged ; throat dull white, slightly washed

with olive; foreneck and breast white, the feathers edged with olive-green,

producing a streaked appearance, the flanks also streaked in the same

manner; lower abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts pale y'ellow, white

in the centre of the feathers; under wing-coverts and axillaries bright

yellow; quills dusky' brown below, yellow along the inner web; “iris

dark red” ( H. O. Forbes). Total length 7^5 inches, culmen 075, wing 3-35,

tail 3'35, tarsus 07.


The Javan Streaked Bulbul appears to be confined to the island of


Java.”


This does not read like the female of a Grey Bulbul, and I do not

know of any' species of Hemixus having been hitherto imported as a cage-

bird with the exception of the Indian Brown-eared Bulbul ( Hemixus flavala)

three examples of which arrived at the London Zoological Gardens in 1877.



