Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/82

Rh monedula, Coturnix communis, Cynchramus polaris, Columba rupestris, Perdix daurica, Caccabis chukar, the three last named being peculiar to the mountains. Many more birds must, in my opinion, winter in the oases at the foot of the Tian Shan, where food is more abundant than on the Tarim and Lob-nor.

Of the forty-eight varieties of birds observed in winter on the Tarim, two are new species. Of these one named by me, Rhopophilus deserti, was also seen during my last expedition to Tsaidam. Having on that occasion only obtained two or three specimens, I decided not to form a separate species, but to call them a variety of ''Rhopophilus pekinensis Swinh. var. major''. But now that I am convinced from a number of specimens of the constant recurrence of certain marks (greater size and pale-coloured plumage) distinguishing the Central Asian bird from its Chinese congener, I have distinguished it as a new species, under the name of "deserti," for it is characteristic of the desert, and is neither found north of the Tian Shan, nor in Russian Turkestan.

Another very interesting novelty among the birds of the Tarim, is a new Podoces. Hitherto we only knew of three species of this sub-genus. A fourth has now been added, which I have named Podoces tarimensis. The new Podoces