Ornithology of Gilgit. t41 



from 1-93 to 2-3. The specimens mentioned by Capt. Mar- 

 shall with striated upper tail-coverts and rump are, I think, 

 certainly not P. rubicola ; the streaks referred to are much 

 less pronounced than in female P. rubicola and apparently 

 indicate a phase of plumage of the immature P. maura. 



73. Pratincola robusta, Tristram, apud Marshall, Ibis, 

 1881, p. 55, nee Tristram. 



Pratincola robusta cannot be included in the list of Gilgit 

 birds. Canon Tristram^s type of that species, from Mysore 

 in the south of India, has recently been shown (Stray Fea- 

 thers, ix. p. 133, 1880) to be quite distinct from the birds 

 referred to by Captain Marshall under that name. The form 

 mentioned by Captain Marshall would, if distinct from P. 

 maura, require a new name ; but with a large series of these 

 birds from Gilgit, and after examining the specimens in 

 Mr. Seebohm^s collection and in the British Museum, I 

 cannot agree that the proportional length of the tail or any 

 of the other points brought forward will justify the splitting 

 of Pratincola maura into two species. 



74. Saxicola opistholexjca, Strickl. 



This species is rare in Gilgit and perhaps only occurs there 

 on passage to Turkestan, whence SevertzoiF records it, under 

 the name of S. syenitica, as breeding. According to my 

 observations it appears in Gilgit, in small numbers, in April 

 and May on its way north, and passes southwards again late 

 in autumn. I have the following notes of a bird of this 

 species shot in Gilgit on the 23rd December : — Length 6*5 

 inches, wing 3*7, tail 2'9, tarsus 0'95, bill from gape 0-85 ; 

 bill, feet, and claws black, gape yellow, iris brown ; the head 

 and nape ashy, forming an ill-defined cap. The young bird 

 described by Major Biddulph is possibly the young of Saxi- 

 cola morio. 



75. Saxicola picata, Blyth. 

 Saxicola capistrata, Gould. 



A summer visitor to Gilgit, and exceedingly common from 

 the middle of March to the middle of September. Of fifty 

 specimens in my collection, thirty are males, and these show 



