IIYl'OCOLIUS. 251 



Coloration. Male. The feathers immediately near the nostrils, 

 the lores, ear-coverts, the feathers above and below the eye, and 

 a band carried round the nape black ; forehead, crown, cheeks, 

 chin, throat, the middle of the abdomen, vent, thighs, and under 

 tail-coverts pinkish cream-colour ; remainder of the body-plumage, 

 wing- co verts, and tertiaries drab-grey ; winglet and primary-coverts 

 blackish shaded with ashy, and partially margined with grey ; pri- 

 maries black, with broad white tips shaded with grey on the first 

 two or three ; secondaries black, broadly edged and tipped with 

 ashy, the black diminishing in amount on the later quills, and occu- 

 pying only a portion of the inner web ; tail drab-grey, broadly 

 tipped with black. 



Fig. 77. Head of H. ampelinus. 



Female. The upper plumage and the whole wing greyish isabel- 

 line, the quills shaded with brown interiorly, and edged and 

 tipped with light grey ; the tail is merely brown towards the end 

 and tipped paler ; the lower plumage pinkish cream-colour, suffused 

 with drab-grey across the breast. There is no black whatever on 

 the head. 



The bill of a male killed in April is black : in one killed in June 

 the basal half is horn-colour, and the terminal half black ; legs 

 yellow. The female has the bill dark brown. 



Length about 9*5 ; tai!4'6 ; wing 4 ; tarsus *9 : bill from gape '9. 



Distribution. A specimen was killed in March by Blanford's 

 collector amongst the lower hills on the eastern flanks of the 

 great Khirthar range dividing Sincl from Khelat. Another speci- 

 men was procured at Nal in Khelat. This appears to be a common 

 bird on the shores of the Persian Gulf, especially at Fao and 

 Bushire, where it is recorded as arriving about the 10th April. It 

 also occurs in Persia, and it was first discovered in North-east 

 Africa. 



Habits, fyc. This bird is found about the date-gardens of Fao and 

 other places in the Persian Gulf, but Blanford procured it on the 

 bare hill-sides of a stony range of hills. At Fao it breeds in June 

 and July, constructing a cup-shaped nest lined with grass, wool, or 

 hair, on a leaf of a date-palm at no great height from the ground. 

 The eggs, four in number, are dull white, spotted with grey, and 

 measure about '86 by '63. 



