Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/100

68 more profusely spotted with white, and the white on the lower phiniage is so extensive as to sometimes make this look almost wholly white.

Colours of soft parts. Iris red-brown; bill horny brown; legs and feet black.

Measurements. Length about 350 mm,; wing 190 to 210 mm., average about 200 or rather less; tail 160 to 170 mm.; tarsus about 40 mm.; bill about 50 mm. and decidedly more slender than in hemispila and its subspecies.

Distribution. N.W. Himalayas from Afghanistan, Gilgit, Kashmir, Ladakh to S.E. Tibet, whence I have had specimens sent me. Chambi Valley in Tibet and Sikkim.

Nidification. Eggs sent me by Mr. D. Macdonald with the parent birds from the Chambi Valley are exactly like those of the European Nutcracker, very pale blue-green speckled with dark brown sparsely everywhere and a little more numerous at the larger end. They measure about 33·6 × 24·6 mm.

The nests were said to be neat facsimiles of those of the Indian House-Crow, but neater and with a lining of pine-needles.

Habits. These differ in no way from those of the last bird. Osmaston says that it feeds principally on the seeds of the Blue Pine (Pinus excelsa) and of the Spruce (Picea morinda).  

The genus Pyrrhocorax contains the Choughs, of which there are two species—P. pyrrhocorax, the Red-billed Chough, and P. graculus, the Yellow-billed Chough, which occur unchanged over a great area of three continents. Both are found within Indian limits.

They resemble the true Crows in colour, but differ from them all in having the bill and feet brilliantly coloured.

The bill is long and slender and gently curved throughout its length; the narial plumes are very short and dense, The tarsus is quite smooth, differing markedly from the true Crows in this respect.


 * Upupa pyrrhocorax Linn., Syst. Nat., ed. x, p. 118 (1758) (England).
 * Gruculus ercinita. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 43.

Vernacular names. Tsagh (Kandahar).

Description. The whole plumage glossy black.

Colours of soft parts. Iris brown; legs and feet vermilion-red, claws black; bill vermilion-red.

Measurements. Total length about 450 mm.; wing 270 to 315 mm; tail 150 to 170 mm.; culmen 45 to 60 mm.; tarsus 45 to 53 mm.