256 Mr. H. J. Elwes on the Genus Henicurus, 



Enicurus niffrifro7is,llodgs. MSS., Gray, P. Z. S. 1859, p. 102; 

 Jerdon, Birds of India, ii. p. 215 ; Godwin-Austen, J. A. S. B. 

 1870, p. 107 (?) 



E. heterurus, Hodgs. 



E. scouleri vel heterwus, Hodgs. Gray's Zool. Misc. 184i, 

 p. 83. 



Hab. Cashmere (Admns) ; Chergaon, 11,000 ft., et Kotegurh, 

 6000 ft. (Stoliczka) ; Simla [Beavan) ; Nepal {Hodgson) ; Sikim 

 {Elwes) ; Khasia Hills {Godwin- Austen) ; Moupin {David) ; 

 Bhotan {Pemberton). 



Back, neck, and head, except a white frontal patch, black ; 

 breast, belly, rump, tail-coverts, and broad bar on wings white ; 

 tail short, the centre feathers black except at the base, gradually 

 showing more white to the outer pair, which are wholly white ; 

 the tail-feathers nearly equal in length. 



The young (described by mistake as another species) is of a 

 duller black, without any white on the forehead, and has the 

 breast mottled with black and white. Bill black ; eyes dark 

 brown ; legs fleshy white (not black, as stated in the ' Birds of 

 India' by mistake). Length 5^ inches, wing 3, tail 2 to 2^, 

 tarsus I", bill \. 



This little Henicurus, which differs from all the rest in the 

 comparative proportions of its tail, legs, and bill, is found from 

 Cashmere to East Thibet, but seems to be commonest in the 

 Eastern Himalayas. • 



Dr. Stoliczka found it in the valley of the Sutlej, more con- 

 fined to the hills of the outer ranges, but not uncommonly found 

 up to 8000 feet; while Adams says that in Cashmere it prefers 

 the streams of the higher ranges. I found it common in Sikim ; 

 and it is the only species which I observed in the valleys of the 

 interior, where it frequents rivers in preference to the smaller 

 streams. As Jerdon has related, it often contends with Ruti- 

 cilla fuliginosa for a favourite rock in the midst of a boiling tor- 

 rent, where, cleverly avoiding the waves, it searches among the 

 great boulders that are rolled down from the mountains for the 

 larvse of various water-insects, which form its chief food. The 

 highest point where I observed it was on the Lachoong river, 

 one of the great branches of the Teesta, 10,000 feet above the 



