534 alatjdid.t:. 



2. Otocorys elwesi. 



Otocorys penicillata (nee Gould), Ilodys. lean. ined. in Bihl. Soc. Zool. 



V. pi. 763 (no. 0G8) ; Horsf. ^- Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. 



p. 4{)9 (1856, pt.)* ; Swinh. P. Z. S. 1862, p. 318 ; Jerdon, B. hid. 



ii. p. 431 (1863). 

 Otocorys alpustris [nee L.), Sd-inh. P. Z. S. 1863, p. 272. 

 Otocorys sibirica, Eversm. (nbi?); Swinh. P.Z.8. 1871, p. 390; 



Band <§• 0«,sf. Oix. Chine, p. 316 (1877). 

 Otocorys elwesi, W. Blmiford, J. A. S. Bmq. 1872, p. 02 ; id. Ibis, 



1873, p. 213; Hume, Str. F. 1873, p. 213; Severtz. Ibis, 188.3, 



p. 61. 

 Otocorys longirostris [nee Moore), Hume 4" Senders. Lahore to Yar- 



kand, p. 267 (1873) ; Dresser, Ibis, 1876, p. 181. 

 Otocorys nigrifrons, Prjev. Mong. S) Thibet, ii. p. 103 (1876). 

 Otocorys teleschowi, Prjev. Ibis, 1887, p. 416. 



Aduh male in ivinter plumage. Similar to 0. penicillata, but dis- 

 lingiiished by the white on the sides of the neck, which forms a 

 band separating the black of the fore neck from the black eai-- 

 coverts. The bill is very long and slender, and has a yellowish 

 base to the lower mandible. On some few specimens a tinge of 

 yellow is visible on the forehead. The chest has some dusky spots 

 or edges. 



In hreeding-phrniage^ the whole of the pale edgings to the feathers 

 wear off and the black line on the base of the forehead, which never 

 seems to be entirely absent even in winter, becomes strongly pro- 

 nounced and is followed by a broad white frontal band which joins 

 the eyebrow, and is itself followed by another broad black band, 

 extending backwards into the elongated hornlets above the white 

 supercilinm. The feathers at the base of the bill and the nasal 

 plumes become so much abraded that the bill looks longer and more 

 slender in breeding-plumage than it does in winter. 



In a series of male birds from Sikhim and Thibet, collected by 

 Mandelli, the length of the culmen is 0"5-0-6 inch, and the wing 

 4"5-4*75 inches. In the females from the same localities tlie culmen 

 measures 0"45-0'6 inch, and the wing 4-4-4 inches. 



The female differs from the male in wanting the black on the 

 crown and base of forehead, the nasal plumes being dusky brown, 

 and the crown streaked with black ; but the white frontal band is 

 very distinct and broad. The black band on the fore neck is very 

 small. 



The young birds are mottled after the manner of Hoi'ned Larks, 

 and I believe that after the first moult into winter plumage there 

 is no trace of a white forehead or black gorget, the latter being 

 replaced by a few streaks of black. 



The series of skins from the Prjewalski collection presented to 

 the Museum by Mr. Seebohm is of the highest interest, comprising 

 specimens determined by Colonel Prjewalski as 0. alhlgula and as 

 0. nigrifrons, Prj. The latter have certainly a little more black at 



* The Nepalese epecimens recorded in this Catalogue were no longer in the 

 India Museum when the collection was banded over to the British Museum in 

 1881. 



