Page:Stray feathers. Journal of ornithology for India and its dependencies (IA strayfeathersjou11873hume).pdf/57

Fringilauda Nemoricola ct Sordida, intermediate between the two last forms. The bill and general Lone of coloring approaches most closely to Malabaricus, hut in both respects the bird seems intermediate, and the wings of the males appear to vary from 8:4 to 8:6 ivehes.

Lastly, what I take to be the true Triborhynchu has the shortest and stumpiest hill of all, and in summer plumage is darker and inore rufous, and in winter plumage greyer, and duskier than any of the others. I have a single specimen of this bird from the salt range in winter, showing that some specimens, at any rate in the cold season, stragyle outside the Himalayzus ; the wings of the males seem to vary from 3:8 to 4 inches.

I have said nothing about the length of the hind claws, be- cause these appear to vary very mucb according to the individuals and not according to the race. In one individual of Gulgula the hind claw alone measwes just over 0.75 of an inch ; in another, it is sply 0-45 of an iuch ; and similar, though not such striking variations are observable in the lew specimens that I possess of cach of the other races.

Whether any or all of these raees may ultimately prove deserving of specific separation, I cannot pretend to say, but I would earnestly invite the attention of brother ornithologists to this most interesting though troublesome little group, in the hopes that by a combined effort we may in a year or two be in a position to arrive at a more definite conclusion in regard to it. A. O. H.

 fringilanda Nemoricola. Hodgson. fringilauda

Sordida. Stol.

In the 37th volume of the Journal of thic Asiatic Society, Dr. F. Stoliczka characterized under the name of Sordida, a supposedl new species of Hodgson's genus Fringilande. Ilc remarked, that * 7. Nemoricolu was only a winter visitant to the lesser ranges of the North-Western Himalayas ; but that he had often observed it during the summer in the south- western parts of Thibet, and in the north of Cashmere" he further inentioned, that another species, (his Sordida) was pro- cured by him near the Baratatsu Pass, in North Laboul, and near Padam, and that during the previous winter he had procura numerous specimens from the neighbourhood of Kotegurh.

In regard to this new species he remarkod : “ The follow- ing description is takey from these Kuteguch specimens. 