336 NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXV. 1918. 



Sturnus vulgaris dzungaricus Hut. 



Stiirnus dzuivjaricus Buturlin, Urn. Jahrh. 101)4. p. 20S (di'i-oribiid from one skin from Urnnga ill 

 Dzungaria — date not given — and a winter bird from India). 



Described as having the head and neck bronze- purple, the back violet- 

 green, rump violet (held away from the light the back is green, the belt (sic !) 

 blue), shoulders purple-bluish, wings purple-bronze, underside laterally with 

 bronzy gloss. 



This form is still hidden by the fog of uncertainty. Buturlin apparently 

 believes that it nests in Dzimgaria, where a special subspecies might very well 

 exist. I have not exammed breeding specimens from Dzungaria, but there is 

 in the Tring Museum a supposed <J, though probably a ?, bought from Tancre 

 and said to be from " Kenterlik, Altai," and some winter birds in the British 

 Museum, i.e. 1 ad. Meerut, B. H. Jones coll., 1 ad. Murdan, Dec. 1870, A. 0. 

 Hume coll., 9 ad. Lucknow, 22. 1. 1889, G. Reid coU., ? Rawal Pindi, J. Biddulph 

 coll., and a male from the Tian-Shan, September, Przev/alski coll., do not well 

 fit in with any other form of StarUng and seem to agree with Buturlin's descrip- 

 tion. I therefore consider them to be 8. v. dzungaricus. These birds were 

 named by Sharpe S. poUaratskyi, menzhieri, and purpvrascens, neither of which 

 they are. The head is green with a strong purplish gloss, or, as Buturlin says, 

 " bronze-purple," the back is purple, the interscapular region, however, with 

 more or less steely blue-green, edges of the wings bronze with more or less purple 

 gloss. These birds are too large and the under wing-coverts too light for 

 dresseri. The wings measure 129 (5) to 136 mm. 



Sturnus vulgaris humii Brooks. 



" Sturnus indicus Hodgs., Icones ineditae in Brit. Mus." of the Cat. U. Brit. .Mus. xiii. p. 35. (Sharpo 



in several cases used Hodgson's unpublished names, thinliing that " in this case he might 



stretch the law of priority ") (sic !). 

 .Sturnus splendens Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. At: i. p. 421 (1850— -Xomen nudum, ex Temminck 



M.S. 1). 

 Sturiuis nitens Hume, Ibis, 1871. p. 410 (nee S. nitens Brchm, Ilandu. Natiirg. Voij. Deiitschl. p. 390. 



1831). 

 Sturnus humii Broolis, Ibis, October 1876. p. 500 (Cashmere). 

 Sturnus ambiguus Hume, Stray Feathers, iv. p. 512 (December 1876). 

 See Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xiii. p. 35, Vog. pal. Fauna, p. 45. 



Breeds in the Himalaya from Cashmere to Nepal and in the north-western 

 Punjab, in winter in the plains of India. 



Sturnus vulgaris minor ITume. 



Sturnus minor Hume. Stray Feathers, 1873. p. 207 (Terra typica : Larkhana). 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xiii. p. 39, Vog. pal. Fauna, p. 46. 



Resident in Sind, east to Etawah. 



Sturnus vulgaris zaidamensis But. 



Sturnus zaidamensis Buturlin, Cm. Jahrb. 1904. p. 208 (Zaidani and Ta-tsch\i north of the Nan- 

 Shan Mts.). 



This Starling is unknown to me. It has been described from 2 specimens 

 from the above locaUties, but no dates have been stated, so that one docs not 

 know if they were Ukely to breed there or only on passage. 



