Page:Stray feathers. Journal of ornithology for India and its dependencies (IA strayfeathersjou11873hume).pdf/56

40 eight and ten thousand feet, and fifth, what I take to be the Leiopus type from Ladak, Thibet, and the higher Himalayan plateau generally.

Typical specimens of each of these races may be so selected as to make it apparently indisputable, that each represents a distinct species; but even the small series, some five or six of each, that I possess seems to show that no hard and fast line can be drawn between any of them; and it is quite certain that no satisfactory separation can ever be effected, until a really large series of each of these five races and any others that further investigation may bring to light) is brought together in one collection and most carefully collated.

Of these five races the most distinct appears to be the skylark of the high Himalayan plateau (which however in the cold season may, and doubtless does, descend into the lower hills and valleys) which I identify with Hodgson's Orientalis vel Leiopus. This race has the whole lower breast and abdomen perfectly pure snowy white, and this I have observed in none of the other races. The bill is slender like the true Gulgula, but still more sharply pointed; the wings, too, are larger or an average than in any other of the four races, and in the males vary apparently from 3.8 to 4.0 inches. I possess no ascertained female. This race cannot be mistaken (though it approximates to it in length of wing) for Dulcivox, although the lower parts in that species, too, are at times pure white. It is altogether a smaller and less bulky bird, and has a comparatively much longer and markedly more slender bill.

Next to this comes the true Gulgula, which, in the summer at any rate, extends to Cashmere and other comparatively low hill valleys, where, as well as in the plains, it breeds freely. I have specimens of this race from Etawah, Rohtuck, the Sambhur Lake, Bhawulpoor, and Srinnggur, Cashmere. The bill in this race closely resembles that of Leiopus, and is considerably slenderer than those of any of the other three races. The upper surface is much paler than in any of the other four, and the abdomen is pale rufous white. The wings of the male in this race seem to vary from about 37 to 3.8 inches.

The typical Malabaricus has a considerably stouter bill than either of the preceding; the wings are about the same size as those of Gulgula, but the whole upper surface is conspicuously darker, a mixture of deep brown and bright rufous buff, such as is not met with even in freshly moulted specimens of Gulgula, and the lower surface, too, is more markedly tinged with rufous.

The nameless race from Saugor, Raipoor, &c., appears to be