270 FEINGILlID^!. 



the rump duller and less pronounced. Total length 6-8 inches, 

 culraen 0*5, wing 4 - 5, tail 2-d, tarsus 0-75. 



Younger birds have the rump more orange, and apparently do not 

 get the full rosy tint for at least two seasons. 



Young in first plwmage. Very similar to the adult of M. nemoricola, 

 but with red margins to the feathers of the rump. General colour 

 above tawny brown, the mantle and upper back broadly streaked 

 with black centres to the feathers : rump uniform ashy grey, some 

 of the feathers with rosy margins ; lesser and median coverts 

 uniform ashy, with creamy-white margins ; greater coverts dusky 

 brown, tipped with tawny buff; bastard-wing black ; primary- 

 coverts black, edged with pearly grey ; quills dusky blackish, 

 externally ashy fulvous, the inner primaries edged with white near 

 the ends ; upper tail-coverts dull ashy brown, broadly margined 

 with dull ochreous white : tail-feathers dusky blackish, edged with 

 ashy, the outer feathers with white ; crown of head uniform ashy 

 grey; lores and sides of crown ashy ochreous : ear-coverts, cheeks, and 

 sides of neck uniform ashy brown ; throat whitish : remainder of 

 under surface of body ashy brown, washed with pale tawny buff ; 

 abdomen whitish ; sides of body and flanks like the breast ; thighs 

 and under tail-coverts ochreous buff, the latter with dark brown 

 centres ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white, with dusky bases ; 

 quills below dusky, ashy along the inner web : " lower mandible 

 entirely yellow, the upper one grey horny" (J. Scully). Total 

 length 6*5 inches, culmen 045, wing 4*55, tail 3*1, tarsus 085. 



The specimen described is a female bird obtained by Mr. W. T. 

 Blanford in the Kangra Lama Pass, Sikhim, on October 5, 1870. 

 Two male specimens procured on the same date by Mr. H. J. Elwes 

 have more rosy margins to the feathers of the rump, but are in 

 general respects similar to the female described. Both are beginning 

 to moult ; and instead of the uniform ashy head, they have tawny- 

 buff feathers with black bases, foreshadowing the appearance of the 

 first winter plumage of the young. This we also know from the 

 series collected in October by Dr. Stoliczka during the second Tarkand 

 Expedition. The whole upper surface is sandy brown, with darker 

 brown centres to the feathers of the mantle and back, the lower 

 back having rosy ends to the feathers ; wings and tail as in the fore- 

 going description, but all the feathers obscured by sandy-buff 

 margins : under surface of body plain sandy buff, more ashy on the 

 throat and breast. Some of the specimens have a faint rosy tinge 

 on the lesser and median wing-coverts ; in others, mostly females, 

 this is absent or replaced by saffron-yellow, the rosy colour of the 

 lower back being absent. 



The late Dr. Severtzoff recognized three forms of M. hrandti, con- 

 sisting of the typical species, M. haematopygia, and M. patnirensis ; 

 and Mr. Seebohm has kindly lent me the specimens on which these 

 differences were founded, including the types of 31. pamirensis, 

 L. hrandti is said to differ from the last-named species in having no 

 red margins to the rump-feathers, and only a few red-marked 

 feathers on the rump, the lesser wing-coverts being rosy in the male 



