Birds uf the Upper Tarlm. 355 



Description. Legs and feet flesh-coloured ; bill brown ; 

 lower mandible fleshy^ except at the tip; iris dark brown. 



Plumage. Above pale brown (the desert colour) ; under 

 surface of the body white. The top and back of the head, 

 back of the neck, back and scapulars pale slightly greyish 

 brown, each feather with a narrow dark-brown central 

 shaft-stripe; on the back of the neck the shaft-stripes are 

 only slightly pronounced. The rump pale brown, without 

 any central dark streaks on the feathers. A long delicate 

 grey superciliary stripe from the nostrils over the lores, 

 eyes, and ear-coverts. A faint dusky streak through the 

 lores to the eyes and ear-coverts. Cheeks and ear-coverts 

 brownish. A dark-brown moustachial stripe from the gape 

 under the cheeks and ear-coverts. Flanks of the neck 

 greyish, each feather with reddish-brown shaft-stripe. Coverts 

 and quills pale brown, with more darkly coloured primaries, 

 and with a tinge of grey on coverts. Chin, throat, breast, 

 and abdomen white, tinged on the flanks and tibial feathers 

 with rufous buff, each feather on the sides of the breast and 

 of the flanks with a narrow reddish-brown shaft-stripe. 

 Lower wing-coverts, axillaries, and under tail-coverts pale 

 rufous buS" or buffy white. Tail brown; two middle tail- 

 feathers brown, more darkly coloured along the shafts, and 

 with numerous narrow close-set obsolete bars only visible in 

 certain lights ; the other tail-feathers dark brown, with paler 

 tips and outer webs margined throughout their length with 

 pale brown; the two exterior feathers tipped and broadly 

 margined on the outer webs with whitish or white. 



Through the kindness of Mr. Strauch, Director of the 

 Zoological IMuseum in the Academy of Sciences, and of Mr. 

 Biichner, Ornithological Curator of the same institute, I 

 have received for comparison three specimens of Rhopophilus 

 obtained by Col. Prjevalsky during his first journey through 

 Mongolia: two R. pekinensis, /3. var. niajor { = R. deserti), 

 from Zaidam, and a male of R. pekinensis from Northern 

 China. After a careful examination of all these specimens, 

 and after a comparison of R. deserti with R. pekinensis and 

 R. albo-superciliaris {' Lahore to Yarkand,' p. 218, pi. xviii.), 



