64 



next the body almost entirely white ; the earlier primary-coverts 

 chiefly white on the outer webs, dark brown edged with sandy 

 elsewhere ; quills dark brown edged with sanely ; lores and a 

 broad supercilium pale buff; ear-coverts rufous; remainder of 

 the sides of the head mixed brown and buff ; chin and throat white ; 

 remainder of the lower plumage very pale buff, somewhat deeper on 

 the breast ; under wing-coverts white mottled with black ; axillaries 

 white, with blackish bases. 



The sexes appear to be alike in the winter, but may probably 

 differ in the summer. 



The above is the plumage of adults of both sexes during the 

 winter. I have not been able to examine birds in summer 

 plumage ; but the skins most advanced towards this plumage in the 

 Hume Collection have a dark blackish streak from the bill down the 

 sides of the throat and breast, expanding in width gradually and 

 leaving the throat narrowly white. The sandy margins of the upper 

 plumage are probably at this season much reduced in extent, leaving 

 the upper plumage blacker. 



The young resemble the adults in winter plumage, but there is 

 no white on the tail, which is brown with fulvous margins, and the 

 white on the wing-coverts is either absent or very much reduced. 



Legs and feet black : iris brown ; bill black (Hume). 



Length nearly 6 ; tail 2-2 ; wing 3 ; tarsus 1 ; bill from 

 gape -7. 



Distribution. A winter visitor to the Punjab, Rajputana, Northern 

 G-uzerat, Cutch, and Sind. The summer-quarters of this species 

 are unknown. No one has met with it in Central Asia, and 

 Hume's conjecture that it may be a resident in the above provinces 

 of India may prove to be correct. Natives of Jodhpur assured him 

 that these birds remained in this State and bred there during the 

 rainy season. 



Habits, fyc. Hume states that this species was extremely abun- 

 dant in the thin, stunted, scrub-jungle that here and there studs 

 the sandy, semi-desert, waterless tracts which occur all round 

 Jodhpur. It has the ordinary habits of P. maura. 



613. Pratincola insignis. Hodgson s Bush-Chat. 



Saxicola insignis, Hodgs. in Gray's Zool. Misc. p. 83 (1844, descr. 



null.). 

 Pratincola insignis, Hodgs., Bhjth, J. A. S. B. xvi, p. 129 (1847) ; 



Jerd. B. 1. ii, p. 127 ; Hume, 8. F. v, pp. 132, 496, vii, pp. 454, 



619; id. Cat. no. 485 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iv, p. 183. 

 Pratincola robustior, C. H. T. and G. F. L. Marshall, S. F. iii, 



p. 330. 



The Large Bush- Chat, Jerd. 



Coloration. Male. In winter the lores, under the eyes, and the 

 whole of the ear-coverts are deep black ; forehead, crown, and nape 

 black with small fulvous edges ; mantle, back, and rump black with 

 broad fulvous edges ; upper tail-coverts white dashed with rusty ; 

 wing-coverts white next the body, black elsewhere ; the lesser 



