Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/259

Rh 783. Montifringilla blanfordi. BlanforcTs Mountain-Finch.

Montifringilla blanfordi, Hume, S. F. iv, p. 487 (1876) ; id. Cat. no. 7~y2 quint. ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xii, p. 264, pi. iv.

Coloration. Forehead white, with a median black streak; a large patch between the eye and the bill black, extending down to the cheeks and up to the forehead ; a short but broad white supercilium ; cheeks and ear-coverts white ; the whole upper plumage fulvous ; wing-coverts and tertiaries brown, broadly edged with fulvous ; quills dark brown, edged with fulvous, the last few primaries with a patch of white on the outer web ; all the quills except the first two or three primaries also with a patch of white on the inner web ; middle tail-feathers brown edged with fulvous, the others ashy brown, then white and broadly tipped brown ; sides of the neck ferruginous, reaching forward to the sides of the throat and breast but not meeting in front ; chin black ; remainder of lower plumage pale fulvous-white.

None of the birds in the British Museum series of this species are sexed. The sexes are, however, probably alike. Some few birds with the chin white or pale brown are obviously young birds just fledged ; they resemble the adult in other respects, but have the marks on the head paler, and some have the lower plumage suffused with yellow. In the dry state the bill is bluish and the legs black.

Length about 6 ; tail 2-2 ; wing 3-8 ; tarsus -7 ; bill from gape 55.

Distribution. In the Hume Collection there are four specimens of this species which were procured " near Darjeeling " and numerous others from Tibet immediately north of Sikhim. Some of these latter are quite young birds.

Montifringilla ruficollis, Blanf. J. A. S. B. xli, pt. ii, p. 66 ; Hume, S. F. vii, p. 420; id. Cat. no. 752 quat. ; Sharpe t Cat.

784. Montifringilla ruficollis. The Red-necked Mountain-Finch.

56; Hume, B. M. xii, p. 263.

Coloration. Male. Eorehead whitish, turning to ashy and becoming umber-brown on the crown, nape, and hind neck ; a broad white supercilium ; lores and a band under the eye and over the ear-coverts black, passing into rufous osteriorly; sides of the nape, sides of the neck, the ear-coverts, and the sides of the lower throat ferruginous ; chin, throat, and cheeks pure white ; a moustachial streak black ; remainder of lower plumage white tinged with fulvous ; back and scapulars umber-brown streaked with dark brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts plain umber-brown ; middle tail-feathers brown, the others chiefly ashy with broad brown tips, the portion of each feather immediately before the brown tip being white : lesser wing coverts brown ; median and greater coverts chiefly white ; winglet and primary-coverts dark brown ; quills brown margined with fulvous ; the outer web of the first primary entirely white ; all