FRINGILLIN^. 273 



SUB-FAMILY, Fringillinae. 



Bill varied in size and form, more or less conical and thick, 

 short and bulged in some, slender and more elongate in others ; 

 wing moderate or long ; first primary wanting. 



GENUS, Carpodacus, Kaup. 



Bill distinctly turned and compressed at the tip ; commissure 

 sinuated, or with a notch near its base ; wings, with the first 

 thr.ee primaries, sub-equal and longest ; tail distinctly furcate ; 

 feet robust ; claws well curved. 



Bucanetes githagineus, Licht. 



7326is. Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 190. 

 THE DESERT BULLFINCH. 



Length, 57 to 6 ; expanse, 10 to 11 ; wings, 3 '2 to 3 6 ; tail, 

 2 to 3 ; tarsus, 0'67 to 077 ; bill at front, 0'35 to (HI. 



Bill orange-yellow, pale-yellow in some, brownish on culmen ; 

 irides brown ; legs fleshy-brown. 



In the male the head is pale bluish-grey, the. feathers tipped 

 brown ; the chin, throat, breast, cheeks, and ear-coverts a sort of 

 blue-grey, the feathers faintly tinged, most conspicuously so round 

 the base of the lower mandible, with pale rosy ; the abdomen, 

 vent, and lower tail-coverts, very pale rosy-white, the longest of 

 the latter with dark shafts ; the back and scapulars dull earthy- 

 brown, with, when fresh, a faint rosy tinge, which disappears in 

 the dried skin, and somewhat greyer towards the nape ; rump 

 pale-brown, more decidedly tinged with rosy ; the visible portion 

 of the upper tail-coverts rosy-white, more strongly tinged with 

 rosy at the margins, the centres and bases of the longest being 

 pale-brown ; these, however, are not seen till the feathers are lifted ; 

 tail-feathers dark-brown, conspicuously, though narrowly, margined 

 with rosy- white, most rosy towards the bases of the lateral 

 feathers ; the wings hair-brown, conspicuously margined and 

 tipped with pale rose-color, or rosy-white ; the coverts, second- 

 aries, and tertiaries most broadly so. There is a very narrow, 

 inconspicuous, pale rosy frontal band. The wing-lining and 

 axillaries are pure white ; the winglet alone is dark-brown, 

 unmargiried with rosy. 



The female has the whole upper surface and the sides of the head 

 and body a dull pale earthy-brown, with only a faint rosy tinge upon 

 the rump and upper tail-coverts ; the lower parts a still paler 

 earthy-brown with the faintest possible roseate tinge on the breast, 

 and becoming albescent on the vent, lower tail-coverts and tibial 

 plumes ; the wings and tail are as in the male ; but the margins 

 are narrower and less conspicuous, and are pale brownish instead 

 of rosy-white. 



The Desert Bullfinch is a winter visitant to Kutch and Sind ; 

 it does not occur elsewhere within our limits. 



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