280 NOVITATES ZOOLOOIOAE XXIV. 1917. 



ehukar from the Indian hill.s, koroviakovi is distinctly lighter and brighter in 

 colour, the breast of a somewhat lighter grey. Wings, <J 144-156 mm., once 

 163 mm., ? 140-148 mm. 



It is true that the birds from Russian Turkestan, Buchara, and Transcaspia 

 are not the same ; they are larger, the colour is less bright, not so reddi.sh, and 

 they appear therefore to me duller, generally darker, though not so dark and 

 dull as ehukar. Wings, <J and $ 150-172 mm. I think that the birds from 

 Northern Khorassan are the same too, and probably also those from North 

 Persia south of the Caspian, but Zarudny evidently thinks that they are different 

 again. It is thi.s bird (the one from Russian Turkestan and Buchara) which 

 Zarudny calls " kakelik" and it is the one which probably Falk meant to 

 describe. I therefore call it : 



Alectoris graeca falki subsp. nov. 



Type : <J ad., near Przewalsk, east of Lake Issik Kul, in Russian Turkestan, 

 26. xi. 1901, collected by Kutzenko. (Tring Museum.) 



In the Russian (Moscow) journal Messager Ornithologique, 1914. p. 59, 

 Zarudny also described another form, which he called '" Caccabis kakelik sub- 

 pallidus," and which I call Alectoris graeca subpallida (Zar.). According to the 

 author this form is quite different from " Caccabis kakelik kakelik" — my Alectoris 

 graeca falki, which belongs to the "dark forms" — and belongs to the "pale 

 forms." Zarudny — evidently only from the descriptions of pallida, without 

 having seen specimens — -comes to the conclusion that his birds diSer from pallida 

 (his " humei ") in being smaller, five males having wings of 161-165mm., fourteen 

 females wings of 148-157 mm. This form inhabits the hills of the desert of 

 Kysyl Kum, west of Semiretchyensk and north of Buchara, and those of Southern 

 Buchara, between the Rivers Surchan and Kafirnagan, Wachsch and Pjandj. 

 Birds from those hills were united by Bianchi with his pallescens, with which he 

 also associated Hume's pallida. Bianchi was evidently not far wrong in doing 

 this, because the types of pallescens and pallida are very similar to each other, 

 though the latter appears to be still a bit lighter, and the rump not so grej'ish, 

 but as the birds are in very worn plumage, this cannot decide anything. While 

 true "pallida" is the bird of Eastern Turkestan, being found in Karakash, 

 Yarkand, the Ru.ssian Chain (Kwen-Lun) to the Pamir, the distribution of 

 the birds which Hume called pallescens is somewhat difficult to explain. 

 They were found at Leh, Ak Masjid and Karbu in Ladak and Cashmere, 

 but are not the form inhabiting Cashmere generally, for nearly all over that 

 country we find birds which do not differ from typical ehukar. even at C4ilgit and 

 as far east as Kohat (Whitehead). I therefore believe that the pale form of 

 East Turkestan ranges over the border into and over the Karakorum Mountains 

 into a few highly elevated districts of Cashmere (Ladak), and that Bianchi was 

 correct in uniting pallida and pallescens — -the latter, unfortunately, being the 

 first name, according to page-priority. In any case Sharpe was wrong when 

 he {Scientif. Res. Second. Yarkand Mission, Aves, p. 121, 1891) separated 

 " pallida " as a species and united " pallescens " with ehukar ! 



Alectoris graeca pubescens (Swinhoe). — This is a somewhat variable form ; 

 the characteristic vinous tinge is strongly developed in some, less so in others, 

 and even from the same localities. I am by no means certain that Altai speci- 



