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^EGITHALUS CONSOBRINUS, Swinh. 



Chinese Penduline Tit. 



^Egithalus pendulinus, Radde, Reis. Sibir., ii. p. 195 (1863). 



- consobrinus, Swinhoe, P. Z. S., 1870, p. 133— Id. P. Z. S., 1871, p. 362. 



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Mr. Swinhoe thus describes his first meeting with the present species : — " Walking through the immense 

 market-town of Sha-She, on the river below Ichang, I spied a pair of these little Penduline Tits in a cage on 

 a shop counter. I was told that they were captured in the neighbourhood. I consider the discovery of this 

 species most interesting, as affording a case analogous to that of Cyanopica, which appears restricted to Spain 

 and Portugal in Europe, and then turns up in China about the Yang-tze and northwards, extending to Japan, 

 in a somewhat modified form. The Penduline Tit occurs only in South Europe, and we find it again, rather 

 changed, on the banks of the Yang-tsze 850 miles from the sea." 



Although at the time that Mr. Swinhoe wrote it was perfectly true that a distance of thousands of miles 

 separated the two known species of the genus, it need not now be a matter of surprise that an JEgithalus 

 should be found in China ; for about the same time that one turned up in the latter country, the Russian 

 explorers in Central Asia were discovering other members of the genus : M. Severtzoff has described 

 several new species of JEgithalm from Turkestan ; and although I can hardly believe that they are all 

 specifically distinct, there can be no doubt that the genus is strongly represented in Central Asia. 



Even before Mr. Swinhoe had discriminated the species, it seems to have been met with in Eastern 

 Siberia by Dr. Radde, who, however, does not appear to have distinguished it from the European bird. He 

 writes : — " About the middle of September this Titmouse appeared in small bands among the osiers that 

 line the banks of the Amoor in the Bureja Mountains. I brought with me a nest from the neighbourhood 

 of Selengirsk ; it breeds on the island of Selenga, and makes its nest chiefly of sheep's wool, in which goat 

 and horsehair, occasionally also dry grass-stalks, are interwoven. The inhabitants here call it ' Remess.' " 



The following is Mr. Swinhoe's description of the species : — 



Male. — Crown light grey, with a few blackish streaks and a few broader white ones. A black line runs 

 over the bill, lores, under the eye, over the ear-coverts, and a little beyond. Above the black over the bill 

 a white line occurs, passing in a distinct eyebrow over and beyond the eyes ; under the black line a white 

 one starts from the base of the lower mandible, and extends onward to meet the eyebrow white beyond the 

 black ear-coverts. Back and scapulars light russet-buff, a deep russet or maroon collar stretching across the 

 hind neck ; wing-coverts blackish brown, the lesser broadly margined with russet-buff, the greater on basal 

 half with deep russet, on apical half with light buff. Winglet and primaries hair-brown, narrowly edged 

 with brownish white ; the secondaries broadly so, russet at base of edgings, increasing greatly on the 

 tertiaries, which are nearly white, the brown being washed with chestnut and confined to the neighbourhood 

 of the shafts. Lower back well tinged with buff; upper tail-coverts whity-brown, with blackish median 

 streaks. Tail hair-brown, with light buff edgings to the feathers. Underparts pale russet-buff, nearly white 

 on the throat, deep russet or maroon on the sides of the breast adjoining the nuchal collar ; buff on the 

 carpal joint and along the sides of the body; under edges to quills buff-white. 



Female. — Dingy grey on the head and hind neck, the dark specks on the crown smaller ; back darker and 

 dino-ier ; the nuchal collar and the lateral breast-spot missing ; eye-stripe brown instead of black, the white 

 above and below the stripe less pronounced, otherwise similar to the male, but not so bright. 



Bill long, conical, and pointed, flesh-white, washed with blackish on the culmen and gonys, darker in the 

 former. The male's bill is darker than the female's. Eyes black. Legs strong, deep dingy indigo-grey, 

 including feet and claws. 



Length 4 inches ; wing 225, first quill diminutive, second and third equal and longest, fourth a trifle 

 shorter ; tail 1'75, of twelve feathers narrowing to a point at tips and graduated inwardly or forked, 

 centrals 025 shorter than outermost ; bill, in front 035, to gape 0*44 ; tarse 0'56 ; hind toe 0*28, its 



claw 0-25. 



JEgithalus pendulinus, of Europe, has a great deal shorter and smaller bill than the Chinese bird ; the 

 black cheek-stripe is more extended, and the white eyebrow and moustache are wanting. The deep russet 

 spreads over the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts. 



The fio-ures represent the typical pair of birds, and are of the natural size. 



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