PROPASSER. 215 



Gilgit and Tibet. I do not consider these races worthy of 

 separation. 



755. Propasser pulcherrimus. The Beautiful Hose-Finch. 



Propasser pulcherrima, Hodgs, in Grays Zool. Misc. p. 85 (1844, 



sine descr.*). 

 Propasser pulcherrimus, Moore, P. Z. S. 1855, p. 210 ; Horsf. fy M. 



Cat. ii, p. 460; Jerd, B. I. ii, p. 402; Hume, N. Sf E. p. 471 : 



id. Cat. no. 743 ; Oates in Hume's N. fy E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 153. 

 Carpodaeus davidianus, Milne-Edwards, Nouv. Arch. Mus. i, Bull, 



p. 19, pi. ii, fig. 2 (1864). 

 Carpodaeus pulcherrimus (Moored), Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xii, p. 429. 



Coloration. Male. Upper plumage ashy brown streaked with 

 dark brown, the crown tinged with rosy ; the rump rosy red ; the 

 upper tail-coverts rosy brown with dark shaft-streaks ; wing-coverts 

 blackish, broadly edged with ashy rufous ; quills and tail black, 

 narrowly edged with ruddy brown, the tertiaries more broadly with 

 ashy ; a very broad supercilium, cheeks, ear-coverts, chin, throat, 

 and a small portion of the forehead pale rosy, with the black bases 

 of the feathers showing more or less ; lores and a band behind the 

 eye rosy brown ; breast and abdomen rosy red, with black shafts ; 

 sides of the body brown, streaked darker ; under tail-coverts rosy 

 red, with large black centres. 



Female. The whole upper plumage fulvous-brown, streaked with 

 black ; wing-coverts, quills, and tail dark brown or black, margined 

 with fulvous-brown ; a very indistinct supercilium fulvous, mottled 

 with brown ; sides of the head and neck and the whole lower 

 plumage ashy white, tinged with fulvous and densely streaked 

 with brown. 



Iris reddish brown ; bill horny brown with the lower mandible 

 greyish ; legs rosy grey (David). 



Length about 6 ; tail 2*6; wing 3; tarsus *75; bill from gape -45. 



Distribution. The Himalayas from Kumaun to Sikhim, extending 

 to Western China. 



756. Propasser ambiguus. Hume's Rose-Finch. 



Propasser ambiguus, Hume, S. F. ii, p. 326 (1874) ; Brooks, &'. F. iii, 



p. 255 ; Hume, Cat. no. 743 bis. 

 Carpodaeus ambiguus (Hume), Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xii, p. 428, pi. x. 



Coloration. Male. The only male of this Kose-Finch that I have 

 been able to examine is a carbolized specimen in the Hume Collec- 

 tion and the type of the species. It is now in very bad order, and 1 

 shall therefore quote the original description made when the speci- 

 men was fresher : — " Forehead, crown, occiput, back, and scapulars 

 dark hair-brown, most of the feathers narrowly and inconspicuously 

 margined with pale brown ; a broad line from the nostrils over the 



* Hodgson confounded this species with P. rhodochrous, but fortunately 

 Moore, in redescribing the present species, retained Hodgson's name. 



