Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/351

Rh 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."— (Kingham, Chipping Norton).

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 'Fremdländischen Stubenvögel' (p. 444), says, "Das Weibchen soil übereinstimmend und nur matter gefärbt sein," 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 Unterrücken hat, den ich besass einst solchen Vogel, der bei kaum bemerkbar matteren Farben das lebhafte Gelb gar nicht und anstatt dessen einen fahlbräunlichschwarzen Unterrücken 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 purchased 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 culmen 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