CHRYSOMITRIS. 301 



Gen. Chrysomitris.--^0/>. 



Bill short, rather broad at the base, compressed at the tip and acute ; culmen 

 flat ; tail forked, other characters as in Carduelis. 



817. Chrysomitris spinoides (Vigors^ Gould, Cent. Him. 



Birds, pi. 32, fig. 2 ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. As. Soc. No. 673 ; Jerd., B. Ind. 

 ii. p. 409, No. 750; Hume, Str. F. iii. p. 25 5 Hypacanthus spinoides, Cat. 

 Mus. Hein. Th. i. p. 16 1 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, Ind. B. p. 472; id. 

 Str. F. 1879, p. 1 88. The HIMALAYAN SISKIN. 



Forehead, occiput and back of neck yellow, the rest of the upper surface 

 -olivaceous brown ; wings dusky brown, with a few yellowish or greenish olive 

 spots on the wing coverts, and a pale yellow band on the primaries ; tail 

 feathers dusky, the outermost yellow, except the shaft and tip ; beneath yellow, 

 olivaceous yellow on the sides of the breast and flanks. 



The female is less bright in colour and has both the upper and lower surface 

 of the body striated. Bill fleshy; legs fleshy brown ; irides light brown, 



Length. 5*5 inches; wing 3*1 ; tail 1*9. 



Hab. Throughout the Himalayas. Common at Darjeeling, and also at 

 Mussoorie. Breeds in all the well-wooded hills at elevations of from 4,000 to 

 7,000 feet. In the neighbourhood of Simla it lays in July and August in trees 

 and bushes. The nest, according to Hume, is a beautiful structure, cups-haped, 

 woven of the finest grass roots with a good deal of hair interwoven in the interior, 

 and with much moss blended with the exterior. It is a very solid and compact 

 structure. The eggs are usually three in number, and, when fresh, are a 

 delicate slightly greenish white, with an irregular ring. Recorded from 

 Hupali, Ramgunga Valley, Kumaon, Bhimtal, Almorah, and Pethoragurh. 



818. Chrysomitris thibetana, Hume, Ibis, 1872, p. 107 ; Brooks. 



Ibis, 1872, p. 469; Hume , Str. F. 1877, p. 416; id. Str. F. 1879, p. 108 

 Sharpe, Cat. B: Br. Mus. xii. p. 226. The THIBETAN SISKIN. 



Adult male. General colour above dark olive green, the feathers of the head 

 and nape subterminally marked with yellow, and forming a patch ; a narrow 

 yellow line above the base of the bill, extending as a supercilium and enclosing 

 the dusky ear coverts ; feathers immediately round the eye yellow ; cheeks 

 yellow with a dusky stripe behind ; lower back and rump dark greenish yellow 

 washed with olive green, the feathers mesially dark brown ; wing coverts the 

 same, the greater series with pale yellowish white tips ; primary coverts and 

 quills blackish, edged externally with greenish yellow ; the secondaries fringed 

 with whitish at the tips ; throat and under surface of the body yellow ; abdomen 

 white ; sides of the body and flanks washed with greenish yellow, and with 

 long mesial dark bruwn streaks ; under tail coverts similar. 



