442 Mr. J. Scully on the 



every possible gradation between the form with the greyish- 

 white cap [capistrata] and the one having the whole head 

 pure black (picata) ; it is quite impossible to separate my 

 series into two species. I have observed and shot examples 

 with the white cap throughout the breeding- season in com- 

 pany with brown females quite undistinguishable from those 

 oi picata, so that the females of both forms are certainly 

 alike. With reference to Major Biddulph^s remarks on this 

 subject, I do not now believe that the white head " is assumed 

 in the spring 9£ the first year only ;" in a large series exa- 

 mined (including the type) there is no satisfactory evidence 

 that the white cap is dependent upon age. Saxicola picata 

 is said to have a wider range than S. capistrata, and this 

 question merits further investigation ; but I find that about 

 half of the specimens usually called S. picata show, on close 

 examination, some slight traces of white about the sides of 

 the head. 



Messrs. Blanford and Dresser, in their Monograph of the 

 genus, confused Saxicola capistrata with Saxicola morio, and 

 described a male of the former from Lahore as /S'. morio. S. 

 capistrata, male, differs from S. morio, male, in breeding- 

 plumage, in having the bill and feet much larger and coarser, 

 the white on the head not extending to the interscapulary 

 region, a different pattern of black on the tail-feathers, and the 

 wing-formula never the same; in Saxicola capistrata {=picata) 

 the second primary is intermediate in length between the sixth 

 and seventh ; in S. morio the second primary is intermediate 

 between the fifth and sixth. In the flesh the two birds 

 could not be mistaken, S. capistrata being much more bulky 

 than S. morio. 



7Q. Saxicola albonigra, Hume. 



This fine species is, according to my experience, only a 

 winter visitor to the Gilgit district, and is common there, at 

 an elevation of about 5000 feet, from the beginning of No- 

 vember to the end of February. I never saw it in summer, 

 and the specimen procured by Major Biddulph in June may 

 have been only a straggler. The sexes are precisely similar 



