54 Mr. W. E. Brooks on Birds observed 



I can select some which are exact types of the English species ; 

 others, the mature old males, attain to a finer and blacker plu- 

 mage than that does, which may be the result of a climate more 

 suitable to the bird. I sometimes shot quite a brown English- 

 looking male from the nest. The extent of the white collar 

 varies in every bird ; so do the red of the breast and the black 

 of the throat. From the large number of this species which I 

 have had through my hands, I have no doubt of F. indica being 

 nothing more than P. I'uhicola converted into a new species. 

 The throat of the female I generally found to be pale brown, not 

 white. Dr. Jerdon says, " The wing, too, is somewhat longer than 

 in the European bird.^' Yarrell gives the length of the wing in the 

 latter as "two inches and three quarters,^^ Macgillivray "2 jg"" 

 inches, Dr. Jerdon "2|;" the first and only bird which I now 

 measure has the wing 2*625 in., or shorter than that of the 

 English bird *. But slight difi'erence in length of wing is no 

 specific mark, any more than slight difference in extent or distri- 

 bution or intensity of colour. All these vary much, even in 

 birds of the same species, in the same country. Mr. Blyth 

 (Ibis, 1867, p. 13) says, "The voice of P. indica is notably 

 different from that of the European P. rubicolaJ" With all 

 deference to Mr. Blyth, who has, perhaps, done more for ornitho- 

 logy than almost any one, I must say that I find the notes and 

 song of the Indian Stone-Chat the very same as those of the 

 English bird ; and many a day have I spent in the hearing of 

 the English bird when trying to find its well-concealed nest. 

 When in Scotland in 1865 I very often heard the Stone-Chat, and 

 brought back with me to India a vivid recollection of its notes 

 and song. However, to settle the matter beyond dispute, I shall 

 send home some skins of P. indica, shot during the breeding- 

 season at Almorah, and also some from the plains during the 

 cold season. At Almorah the young of the first broods were 

 fully fledged by the middle of April. In the hills, the cultivated 

 land on the hill-sides is all terraced ; and to keep up the earth, 



* [Mr. Jenyns, perliaps the most accurate iu tliese matters of all writers 

 on British ornithology, gives (Br. Vert. p. 121) the length "from the 

 carpus to the end of the wing two inches six lines," /. c. 2'6 in., or less 

 than Mr. Brooks's specimen. — Ed. J 



