288 COCCOTHRA USTES PYCNORHAMPHUS 



on hard-shelled seeds or fruits, beech nuts, conifer seeds, etc., 

 ^nd is very partial to peas and the kernels of cherry stones. 

 The young are, however, fed chiefly on caterpillars. The nest 

 is placed on a fruit tree, an oak, or often on a hornbeam, thorn, 

 or holly, and is built of twigs, grass-bents, and rootlets. The 

 eggs, from 4 to 6 in number, are dull greenish grey or pale 

 olivaceous, marked with purplish underlying shell-blotches, and 

 brown surface-spots, blotches, and lines, and measure about 0'92 

 by 0-69. 



PYCNORHAMPHUS, Hume, 1874. 



422. WHITE-WIXGED GROSBEAK. 



PYCNORHAMPHUS CARNEIPES. 



PycnorJiampJins carneipes (Hodgson), As. Research, v. p. 276, xix. p. 151 

 (1836) ; (Gould), B. of As. v. pi. 21 ; Sharpe, Cat B. Br. Mus. xii. 

 p. 47 ; Gates, F. Brit. Ind. Birds, ii. p. 200 ; (Dresser), ix. p. 179, pi. 

 671 ; B. specM%mts Brandt. Bull. Acad. St. Petersb. ix. p. 11 (1842). 



ad. (Transcaspia). Head, neck, breast, upper abdomen, mantle, 

 wings, and tail deep black ; rump and rest of under parts greenish yellow ; 

 a white patch on the wing ; inner secondaries and inner larger coverts with 

 the ends greenish yellow ; upper mandible brownish, the lower whitish 

 horn ; legs pale fleshy brown ; iris hair-brown. Culmen 0'7, wing 4'8, 

 tail 4'0, tarsus 1*1 inch. The female is duller and greyer, the black being 

 replaced by'ashy brown, the cheeks, throat, and breast striated with dull 

 white. 



Hob. Transcaspia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, Mongolia, and 

 the Himalayas east to Szechuen, and is resident. 



It inhabits the mountains, usually above 8,000 feet but 

 sometimes as low as 5,000 feet, and frequents the conifer 

 groves and juniper thickets, and feeds on seeds and berries, 

 especially those of the juniper. Its flight is strong and noisy 

 but not sustained, and its call-note which is usually uttered 

 when the bird is on the wing, resembles the syllables tyou- 

 (Uric uttered j erkily ; when wounded or captured it utters loud, 

 harsh, cries. Nothing is as yet known respecting its nidificafcion. 



423. ALLIED GROSBEAK. 

 PYCNORHAMPHUS AFFINIS. 



Pycnorhamphus affinis (Blyth), J. A. S. Beng. xxiv. p. 179 (1855) ; 

 (Gould), B. of As. v. pi. 23 ; (David and Oust.), Ois. Chine, p. 345 ; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xii. p. 46 ; Gates, F. Brit. Ind. Birds, 

 ii. p. 199. 



