NOTES AND QUERIES. 325 



entries in my diary on which I based my conclusion : — " Feb. 7th, 1895 

 (Oxford). Observatory thermometer went down to 9° last night; on ground, 

 0-3°. Birds singing : Chaffinch, Dunnock, Robin, Wren, Great Tit, Blue 

 Tit ; Starlings very lively. Snow Buntings near Cumnor Hurst." — W. 

 Warde Fowler (Kingham, Chipping Norton). 



AVICULTUEAL NOTES. 



On Sexual Differences in the Superb Tanager (Calliste fastuosa).— 

 In scientific descriptions of this bird we read, " Female similar to the male, 

 but rather less brilliant in colour." Dr. Russ, in the second volume of his 

 1 Fremdlandischen Stubeuvogel ' (p. 444), says, " Das Weibchen soil iiber- 

 einstimmend und nur matter gefarbt seiu," which is the same statement 

 over again ; but then he proceeds to stultify his own remark by continuing, 

 " Ich glaube jedoch, dass es nicht den gelben Untenucken hat, den ich 

 besass einst solchen Vogel, der bei kaum bemerkbar matteren Farben das 

 lebhafte Gelb garment und anstatt dessen eineu fahlbraunlichschwarzen 

 Unterrucken zeigte." His duller bird with brownish rump was probably 

 an immature plumage, and he evidently guessed its sex from the fact that 

 its colouring throughout was not perfected. In the spring of 1897 I pur- 

 chased my first Superb Tanager, which in the late summer moulted into 

 the most brilliantly coloured and most perfect example of the species that I 

 have even seen. The damp cold weather of December, 1898, brought on 

 a sort of weakness which I could only regard as a form of influenza, and 

 this bird was one of the first of sixty victims which succumbed to the 

 disease during December and January. When opened it proved, to my great 

 surprise, to be a hen. In March, 1899, I purchased four examples of the 

 species, and in April two more (all freshly imported) ; one of these died 

 soon afterwards, being ragged and in poor condition ; one died in good 

 condition from apoplexy at the beginning of June, and a third a week later 

 from inflammation of the vent. These last two were examined, and proved 

 to be both cocks. The differences in the sexes are as follows : — The male, 

 as with many Finches, has the crown broader, the base of the beak much 

 broader, distinctly more triangular, when viewed from above, than the hen. 

 In the latter sex, the beak being much narrowed, is more gradually tapered ; 

 viewed from the side, the culraen of the male beak is a little more arched. 

 In colouring the sexes show distinctly different shades of colour ; the male 

 has the head and mantle of a distinctly more golden green than the female 

 (this sex, though equally brilliant, is bluer than the male). The lower 

 back and rump in the male are of a fiery orange colour ; in the female the 

 same parts are golden orange, distinctly yellower at the junction of the 

 orange with the blue-black of the back. In selecting a pair for breeding in 



