Birds of the Pamir Range. 63 



The young A. contelli, iu its first winter's plumage, has its 

 underparts as pale as A. spinoletta ; but the throat, abdomen, 

 and lower tail-coverts are always of the same ground-colour 

 as the breast. 



These differences are greater than between A. maculatus, 

 Hodgs. {A. agilis auct. nee Sykes) and A. arboreus. 



In the Pamir system A. contelli breeds in brooks and 

 brook-swamps of Bash-Alai and the mountain-valleys open- 

 ing into it from both ranges, north and south, but was not 

 observed in the inner Pamir, south of the Trans-Alai range. 



39. Anthus microrhynchus*, Sev. (See Ibis, 1876, 

 p. 180.) 



This species is closely related to A. arboreus, but has a 

 much smaller bill, and differs in some slight details of colour- 

 ing ; but when we consider its mode of life, we are compelled 

 to see in this bird the common ancestor of two European 

 species, viz. A. arboreus and A. pratensis. It is rather com- 

 mon on the Pamir at the end of August, in the high grass, 

 and is also found in grassy places which are treeless or with 

 only a few scattered shrubs throughout the whole of the 

 mountains of Turkestan. It has the small thin bill of A. 

 pratensis, with the short hind claw of A. arboreus ; but some 

 few specimens exhibit a series of intermediate measurcDCients 

 between the typical short-clawed specimens and A. pratensis. 

 In size and colour also it is intermediate between A. arboreus 

 and A. pratensis, which two, however, only differ inter se 

 in the shades of the olive-brown upper and fulvous-white 

 lower surface. 



40. BUDYTES CALCARATA (HodgS.). 



Hodgson's Yellow-headed Wagtail breeds in great num- 

 bers everywhere in the Alai, the Pamir, and near the sources 

 of the Kashgar-Darya ; the male has a yellow head, like B. 

 citreola, but differs from it in its back, which is of a black 

 colour down to the rump and upper tail-coverts. Some traces 

 of this black are also to be seen on the female. 



• [Two examples of this species in Mr. Seebohm's collection are (as we 

 are informed by him) undistinguishable from our European A. (vboreus. — 

 Edd.] 



