on new Species of Central- Asian Birds. 415 



Dimensions : — 



Lengtli. Expanse. Closed wing. Tail. (Culmen.) Tarsus. 



6 .... 127-130 117-121 77 39 9 171 



2 . . . . ? ? 70 41 9 17-3 



Of the primaries the 2nd is the longest; 1=3, and sometimes 

 1 = 2. The outer rectrices (in full plumage) of its delicately 

 striated tail are 3 mm. shorter than the tertiaries. The bill 

 is yellow, tipped with brown at the extremities of both man- 

 dibles ; the tarsus brownish, toes darker, nails dark brown. 

 Eyes hazel. 



Top of the head uniform brown ; nape and sides of neck 

 yellowish- whitish-brown; back yellowish brown, with blackish 

 long streaks ; tail-coverts and upper tail-coverts reddish 

 brown. Lores and hardly perceptible superciliaries dusky 

 whitish; ear-coverts light brown; cheeks and all the underparts 

 of the body dirty white, with reddish-brownish tinge on 

 cheeks and crop, more reddish on the flanks, which are uni- 

 form in colour; feathers on rump rufous white. In full 

 plumage the upper part of the throat shows a blackish colour 

 through the white points of the feathers, where these are 

 not abraded. The wings are blackish brown, with brownish- 

 yellowish margins, both on the quills and upper coverts ; the 

 margin of the outer web of the first rectrix is white. In 

 the centre of the inner web of the flight-feathers, beginning 

 at the fourth, there are white specks forming a mirror, 

 hardly noticeable when the wing is closed ; the lining of the 

 wings is white. The tail is dark brown, with brownish- 

 yellowish margins to the rectrices ; the outermost pair is 

 white, sometimes with dark- brown spots on the inner Avebs ; 

 the remaining rectrices, witli the exception of two or four 

 medians, which are of one colour, are white on the centre of 

 the inner, and sometimes of the outer web. 



The female is not distinguishable from the male. In all 

 my four journeys into Central Asia the species described was 

 met with only once, on the 7/19 August, 1880, in the province 

 of Kan-suh, in the steppe and partly in tiie hilly belt north 

 of the Chagrin-gol. In the beginning of February 1884, on 

 my second visit to the Chagrin steppe, we did not come 



