Ornithology of Gilgit. 435 



arenarius, J. f. 0. 1875, p. 143 ; Nos. 1 and 15 of the speci- 

 mens mentioned by Mr. Blanford in his ' Zoology of Persia/ 

 p. 140 ; and the specimen referred to as a fully adult male 

 by the same author in his ' Zoology of Abyssinia/ p. 339. 



Severtzoff's name of L. phoenicuroides is happily chosen ; for 

 his species does bear a great resemblance to L. phcenicurus ; 

 but, as I mentioned under L. cristatus, it belongs to a dif- 

 ferent section according to the characters of its tail. 



Lanius coLLURio, Linn. 



The Red-backed Shrike is found in Gilgit only on passage. 

 I obtained three immature examples, on the 4th and 16th 

 September and 2nd November, during the autumn migra- 

 tion, but never observed it at any other time. This Shrike 

 is recorded by Severtzoff as breeding in Turkestan, and is a 

 rare autumn straggler to the plains of India in the north-west. 

 My specimens measure — length 7 2 to 7*4 inches, wing 3*7, 

 tail 3-2 to 3-5, tarsus 08 to 0-95, bill from gape O'S to 8-85, 

 culmen 0'68 to 0'7 ; they agree perfectly with a series of 

 young English examples of L. collurio with which I have com- 

 pared them. Young L. collurio is very like young L. phoeni- 

 curoides, but can easily be distinguished from it thus : in L. 

 collurio the second primary is intermediate in length between 

 the fourth and fifth, and the distance between the longest 

 secondaries and longest primary is about equal to the length 

 of the tarsus ; in L. phcp,nicuroides the second primary is inter- 

 mediate in length between the fifth and sixth, and the distance 

 between the tips of the secondaries and the point of the wing 

 is less than the length of the tarsus. There are also some 

 minor differences in colour, amount of crossbarring beneath, 

 and in the relative lengths of the uropygials and second 

 primary. 



53. Pericrocotus brevirostris (Vigors). 



This species seems to be only a winter visitor to the lower 

 valleys of the Gilgit district ; it is not uncommon from the 

 last week in October to the beginning of February. All the 

 flocks I saw consisted exclusively of females and young males 

 in grey and bright yellow plumage, the gorgeous black and 



