Letters, Announcements, ^c. 283 



Agra, Oct. 24, 18G9. 



Sir, — On a former occasion (Ibis, 1868, pp. 233-235) I 

 pointed out the probable identity of Saxicola capistrata, Gould, 

 and >S^. picata ; I have now to inform you that the matter admits 

 of no possible doubt. My museum contains, besides numerous 

 typical examples of both forms, more than fifty specimens in the 

 transition state, entirely connecting by almost imperceptibly 

 small links the apparently wide gulf that lies between the op- 

 posite ends of the chain. As for the white extending further 

 up the back in one form than in the other, the examination of 

 the large series of specimens at once dispels it. The amount 

 of white varies a good deal in individuals, but is not, as a rule, 

 greater in extent in the one type than in the other. S. capistrata 

 may without the slightest hesitation be remitted to the long list 

 of synonyms which already unfortunately encumber this genus. 



This is not, however, the only new Saxicola of Mr. Gould's 

 that must disappear before the inexorable logic of facts. S. 

 Montana is nothing but the breeding-plumage of S. atrogularis. 

 Be it distinctly understood that I offer no opinion as to the 

 distinctness or identity of S. deserti, and S. atrogularis ', but I 

 do positively assert, with a complete series before me, that S. 

 atrogularis and S. montana are different stages of plumage of 

 one and the same species. One of the most remarkable features 

 about the change of plumage in this species is, the gradual 

 change of the axillaries and lesser wing-coverts, in some indi- 

 viduals, from a silky greyish-white to a deep jet-black; and it is 

 not improbable that it is this which misled Mr. Gould into at- 

 tributing specific value to these two difi'erences. I have sus- 

 pected this fact for some time, but have only this day had an 

 opportunity of carefully comparing the large series of S. atro- 

 gularis that my museum contains, killed at all periods between 

 the 1st of October and the 1st of May. 



When we first see the bird in the Upper Punjab in October, 

 it exactly corresponds to Mr. Gould's figure of S. montana 

 (B. As. pt. xvii.), except that the rump in no specimen that I 

 have seen is quite so pure a white as he figures it. It has al- 

 ways, even when the bird first visits us, a faint fulvous tinge; 

 similarly the bn^ast and lower parts are never quite so pale as 



