4 PTEEOCLID^, 



Synliaptes lieteroclita, Tieill. Gal. Ois. iii. p. 64, pi. ccxxii. (182-5). 

 Svrrliaptes heteroclitus, Montessus, Rev. et Mag. Zuol. 1863, pp. 358, 



■ 390, 393, pi. 24. 

 Sirraptes fischeri, Karelin, Bull. Mosc. xiii. p. 495 (1840). 



Adult male. Forehead, superciliaries, cheeks, and nape j-ellowish 

 grej-, shading into dove-grey on the back of the head and sides of 

 the neck ; chin whitish, throat and continuation of eye-stripe rust 

 or yellowish rust. Nape, chest, and breast buffy grey, the two 

 latter separated by a band of white-tipped feathers, each with a 

 narrow black subtermiual band, belly black. Back, rump, and 

 scapulars buff, barred with black ; the upper tail-coverts are also 

 buff, margined internally with blackish grey. Wing-coverts buff. 

 Most of the feathers of the shoulder with black extremities, and 

 some of the median coverts ornamented with round black S])ots near 

 the extremity of the outer web. Axillarics white, tipped with black. 

 Primaries grey, shading into black on the innermost three, the first 

 much the longest and produced into a filament and with the outer 

 web black, the remainder margined with buil ; secondaries buff, 

 with the terminal two-thirds of the outer web black nearly to the 

 margin ; greater primary-coverts like the secondaries, but the black 

 on the outer web extends to the base of the feathers, and leaves a 

 wide buff margin : greater secondary-coverts buff, with a dark 

 chestnut patch towards the extremity of the outer web. Legs, 

 feet, aud vent white, under tail-coverts white barred with black ; 

 middle pair of tail-feathers buff, irregularly marked with blackish 

 grey, much longer than the rest, and produced into long black 

 filaments ; rest of tail-feathers blackish grey, toothed on both webs 

 with vinaceous buff, and tipped with white. Total length 14-6 

 inches, wing 9"1, tail 7, tarsus 0-8. 



Adult female. Kesembles the male : but the feathers of the top of 

 the head, nape, and car-coverts have black shaft-streaks, the throat 

 and continuation of the eye-stripe are buff-yellow or yellow, and the 

 former is separated from the chest by a blackish-brown line. !No 

 band of black and white feathers divides the chest and breast : the 

 sides and back of the neck, sides of the chest, and the lesser and 

 median wing-coverts are ornamented with subtermiual round black 

 spots, and the barring of the back is less regular. Total length 

 12-8 inches, wing 8, tail 5-5, tarsus 0-8. 



Immature males and females resemble the female adult, but have 

 all the neck and chest spotted with irregularly shaped blackish- 

 brown marks, and the black bars on the interscapular region and 

 the round subtermiual spots on the lesser and median wing-coverts 

 much less regular, being broken up into variously shaped marks ; 

 the buff margins and brownish-black inner parts of the inner pri- 

 maries, greater primar^'-coverts, and secondaries so clearly defined 

 in the adult run into one another ; and the filiform ends to the 

 first primaries and centre pair of tail-feathers are not developed. 



For description aud figure of nestling, see Kewton, Ibis, 1890, 

 p. 210, pi. vii. 



Hab. Central Asia ; extending to Pechi-li, N. China in the east, 



