CALiJOFE. 



651. Calliope pectoralis. The Himalynn /ff>i/ -throat. 



Calliope pectoralis, Gould, Icon. Av. pt. i, pi. iv (1837) ; Blyth, Cat. 

 p. 100 ; Horsf. # M. Cat. i, p. 313 ; Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 150 ; Stoliczka, 

 J. A. S. B. xxxvii, pt. ii, p. 45 ; Blanf. J. A. S. B. xli, pt, ii p. 52 ; 

 Hume, N. $ E. p. 325 j id. Cat. no. 513 ; Scully, S. F. viii, p. 304 ; 

 Biddulpk, Ibis, 1881, p. 64 ; Gates in Hume's N. # E. 2nd ed. ii, 

 p. 67. 



Erithacus pectoralis (Gould), Seebokm, Cat. B. M. v, p. 30.1. 

 The White-tailed Ruby-throat, Jerd. 



Coloration. Male. After the autumn moult the whole upper 

 plumage, wing-coverts, and sides of the neck are dark slaty, 

 blacker on the crown ; forehead and a short supercilium white ; 

 middle of chin and of throat bright crimson ; lores, sides of head, 

 sides of chin and of throat, and the whole breast deep black, every 

 feather fringed with ashy ; abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts 

 white ; wings brown, edged with olivaceous ; middle tail-feathers 

 black, (he others with the basal half white and the terminal half 

 black tipped with white. In summer the ashy fringes are cast and 

 the upper plumage is tinged with olivaceous. 



/' male. Olive-brown, the outer webs of the quills suffused with 

 fulvous ; lores, edge of forehead, and a short superciliura dingy 

 white ; chin and middle of throat white, contrasting with the ashy- 

 brown of the sides of the throat and the breast ; abdomen pale 

 fulvous ; middle tail-feathers olive-brown, the others blackish brown 

 tipped with white. 



The nestling has the upper plumage fulvous-brown, much darker 

 on the crown, all the feathers with fulvous streaks ; lower plumage 

 fulvous, all the feathers margined with dark brown; the tail-feathers 

 at first tipped with fulvous instead of white, and the male from 

 the earliest age has the base of the tail white. At the first autumn 

 moult the young male assumes the dark upper plumage of the adult 

 male, but retains the lower plumage of the adult female; traces of 

 the black breast are assumed during the first summer, but the 

 breast does not become fully plumaged till the moult of the second 

 autumn. The female becomes adult at the first autumn moult. 



Bill black, brownish at tip and base of lower mandible ; iris 

 brown ; feet brown ; the tarsi rather livid ; claws dusky (Scully). 



Length about 6 ; tail 2*4 ; wing 3 ; tarsus 1'2 ; bill from gape *75. 



/)ixtrif>it(ion. A constant resident on, or a summer visitor to, the 

 higher portions of the Himalayas from (Hlgif to Sikhim and Bhutan. 

 A winter visitor to the intermediate and lower ranges of the same 

 mountains, being occasionally found in the plains at the foot as in 

 the Bhutan doars and at Sultanpur in Oudh, In summer this species 

 is also found in Turkestan. 



J/nl'It*, i\v. Breeds in Kashmir and Sikhim at 10,000 feet and 

 upwards. A nest, said to belong to this species and found in Sikhira, 

 is described as being a saucer- shaped pad of fine mo-- and roots 

 placed in a deep crevice of a rock. The eggs are described as being 

 pale salmon-bull' and as measuring about '9 by "06. 



