388 Mr. J. E. Harting on rare 



collection a similar specimen from Calcutta, labelled " Hiaticula 

 inongolica, summer dress, Calcutta,^^ in Mr. Blyth's handwriting. 

 Two examples, procured in June in New Guinea, are in the 

 Lcyden Museum, one of which has the forehead black ; the 

 other black bordered with a few v/hite feathers. I have seen 

 others also from India in which the forehead was black, or 

 almost black, showing that black -fronted birds are not confined 

 to North Africa, where, in fact, the species in any plumage 

 is rare. But in most of these, although the forehead may fairly 

 be called black, there is a faint indication of a white line 

 dividing the black frontal band. In winter all trace of black 

 about the head entirely disappears; and between winter and 

 summer plumage, a large series shows every possible gradation 

 from pure white to coal-black. Dr. Pucheran, in identifying 

 " C. rujicollis, Cuv.," with the present species, mentions [loc. cit.) 

 the variation observable in the frontal band. I am not prepared 

 to say that the black forehead indicates the full summer plumage, 

 but rather incline to consider it exceptional*. I have seen but 

 few specimens in which the forehead was really uniformly black; 

 and in a large series of skins examined, which in other respects 

 appeared to have completed their summer plumage, the majority 

 certainly had the forehead black and white. 



But whatever may be said of the black-fronted bird, there 

 can be no doubt, for the reasons above stated, that C. 'pyrrho- 

 thorax, Temm., must stand as a synonym of C. mongolicus, 

 Pallas. 



The claim of this species to a place in the European avifauna 

 rests solely, so far as I am aware, upon the solitary instance 

 recorded by Messrs. Temminck and Gould of its occurrence 

 near St. Petersburg. It is really an Asiatic species, ranging 

 much further towards the north than ^. geoffroyi, and found 

 scarcely so far southwards in winter. Pallas lixed its home 

 in Mongolia, or, rather, on the confines of the IMongol terii- 

 tory. He found it in the neighbourhood of salt-lakes between 



* A specimen of Endromins mormelhis in my collection differs from tlie 

 ordinary type in having the forehead from the base of the bill and gojie, as 

 well as the crown and nape, sooty-black, a case analogous to that of the 

 black-fronted ^. monc/olicKs. 



