new Species of Birds from Kan-su. 273 



on only three occasions : once early in June 1886, near Yo- 

 dzani-pu, in the district of Ming-djau, in the elevated moun- 

 tains, in thin larch-woods, when a pair were seen perched on 

 the trees, and resembled Parus major in habits. He again 

 found it in August near the same village, when a small 

 party, probably a family, were seen on the slope of a steep 

 hill flying from tussock to tussock, and a young, not fully 

 feathered, male was obtained. Lastly, in December of the 

 same year a small flock was seen in the Ta-heh-kau river- 

 gorge, south of the village of Satani, in the district of Si-gu- 

 chen. They were in a baml)oo-thicket at an altitude of about 

 8000 to 10,000 feet. The specimen here secured was in 

 excellent plumage, though unfortunately the sex. could not 

 be determined, and this was the specimen figured. 



Larvivora obscura {op.cit. p. 97, pi. i. fig. 2). 



^ ad. Nasal feathers and lores black, this colour con- 

 tinued in a narrow streak halfway over the eye ; rest of the 

 crown, nape, upper part and sides of the neck, and the back 

 dark slate-blue, paler in fresh-moulted birds, darker in worn 

 plumage ; rump like the back, but greyer ; upper tail-coverts 

 black ; cheeks, ear-coverts, chin, throat, and breast glossy 

 black; flanks smoke-grey, with a reddish tinge; middle of 

 the abdomen white ; crissum and under tail-coverts dirty 

 white, with a reddish tinge ; scapulars and lesser wing- 

 coverts like the back ; median and larger wing-coverts 

 blackish brown; primaries blackish brown, with external 

 greyish margins, which become white at the base ; secondaries 

 and tertiarici blackish brown, washed with dark blue-grey on 

 the outer Aveb and with an indistinct paler margin on the 

 inner web ; under wing-coverts pale reddish ; the two middle 

 rectrices black, the shafts at the base white ; remaining tail- 

 feathers white at the base and otherwise black, the outer 

 feather with the basal third and the 2nd with the basal 

 half white, the 4th white for | and the 5th for | of the 

 length. Wing rouiided, 4th and 5th quills equal in length 

 and longest, the 3rd nearly equal to the 6th, sometimes 

 shorter, sometimes longer, and 1^ to 3 mm. shorter than the 



