Vol. 31, pp. 33-34 May 16, 1918 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 





A NEW BULLFINCH FROM CHINA. 

 BY J. H. RILEY.* 



Mr. George D. Wilder, of Peking, China, has presented to the 

 U.S. National Museum a small bullfinch captured in the wooded 

 mountains of Chili Province, China. It apparently represents 

 an isolated race of Pyrrhula erythaca, which I take pleasure in 

 naming after the donor : 



Pyrrhula erythaca wilderi, subsp. nov. 



Type, adult female, U. S. National Museum, No. 254,074, Eastern Hills 

 about sixty miles east of Peking, China, February, 1917. Collected by 

 George D. Wilder (original No. 419). 



Similar to Pyrrhula erythaca Blyth, but smaller, with black facial 

 mask more restricted, the lighter border of the facial mask almost obso- 

 lete, the lighter tips to the greater coverts narrower, and the dark band 

 across the lower back less pronounced and lighter in color. 



Description. — A narrow band surrounding the bill and running back 

 around the eye and slightly further as a postocular streak, black ; a nar- 

 row band bordering the black on the forehead and below the eye, smoke 

 gray; top of head, cervix, sides of neck, auriculars, and upper back, 

 neutral gray ; back and scapulars, wood brown ; a band across the lower 

 back, deep neutral gray ; rump, white ; upper tail coverts, tail, and pri- 

 maries, black with steely blue reflections; alula, lesser, middle, and 

 primary wing-coverts, deep neutral gray; greater wing-coverts, black, 

 tipped rather broadly with drab and the outer feathers narrowly edged 

 at the tip with white, forming a wing-bar; chest drab; flanks cinnamon- 

 drab; middle of belly, under tail-coverts, and under wing-coverts, white. 

 Wing, 73.5 (85); tail, 53 (65.5); culmen, 8.5 (10.5) mm. 



Remarks. — I have given the measurements of a female specimen of 

 Pyrrhula e. erythaca from Szechuan Province in parenthesis for com- 

 parison. 



* Published with the permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 9— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 31, 1918. (33) 



