174 
77/1? A/071 th's Arrivals. 
3/6 a pair. Tliis rather pleasiii<^ bird is a rich umber 011 the head, throat 
and back, and deep chrome on tlie breast and abdomen. In summer it 
ranges as far north as Siberia and North China, and in winter as far soutli 
as tlie Himalayas. The females have no red on the throat, and the crown 
is greyish brown. We may note two rather curious circumstances : in the 
first consignment I could only find one hen, and in the second lot of quite 
one hundred birds only two hens. Probably, therefore, there are not more 
than }iHlf a dozen hens of this species in the country ; yet, the other day, 
an itinerant bird-dealer passed my house and amongst his very small 
collection was a genuine hen E. rulila. W.E.T. 
Sexes of the Green Jay. I return once more— and briefly — to this 
subject because my birds have at last given indications of sex. The small 
bird with yellowish-green back is a hen, as previously suggested : she has 
commenced to construct a nest. The two birds with blue-green backs are 
cocks : they fight, and one pairs with the hen. All three liave narrow wliite 
frontal bands of the same width, so presumably this is not an indication of 
sex, but possibly of age. If this characteristic really connoted sex, we 
should have to assume that nine-tenthsof the individuals hitherto imported 
have been females, whereas we know that, except in the case of such 
species as the Pekin Robin which reach us via the Continent and are picked 
over en route, the majority of impoited birds are males. W.E.T. 
Spennophtla parvii. It will be remembered that our members, 
Messrs. vSuggitt and Sutcliffe, imported towards the end of last year two 
very rare species of Spennophilce, namely S. aiialis and S. parva. Two of 
the latter weie very kindly sent me, after death, by Mr. Suggitt for inspec- 
tion and were placed in the hands of a taxidermist to be made into skins. 
1 received a polite note from the latter, per return of post, to tlie efFect that 
he had thrown them away as they were in too bad a condition for preserva- 
tion. I replied by a brief post card, saying that he need not trouble to 
undertake any more work for me, and quite shortly I received the skins in 
good order. About six months since Mr. Hamlyn asked me if I could 
identify three very small South .\merican Grosbeaks. I inspected them 
and came to the conclusion that they were S.paiva in immature plumage. 
A month since I noticed that one of them was shewing a black feather on 
the crown. A few days since I again had an opportunity of inspecting 
this little bird and was interested to find it had nearly completed its 
moult, and was undoubtedly a young male S. parva, with two females. The 
three birds were offered me at so reasonable a figure that I could only 
wonder why the large number of experts who must have seen them during 
the last six months should have let such an opportunity slip. W.E.T. 
