3 1 8 LI NOT A P YRRHOSPIZA 



L. horncmanni, being pale sea-green sparingly dotted with 

 pale red and reddish brown, the spots being chiefly collected 

 round the larger end. Compared with those of L. linaria they 

 are paler and less marked with red, the spots being much 

 smaller. In size they average about 0*62 by 0'4S. 



PYRRHOSPIZA, Hodgs., 1844. 

 465. REDBREASTED ROSE-FINCH. 

 PYRRHOSPIZA PUNICEA. 



Pyrrliospiza punicea, Hodgs. J. A. S. Beng. xiii. p. 953 (184'4) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Br. Mus. xii. p. 431 ; Gates, F. Brit. Ind. Birds, ii. p. 211 ; 

 P. lonyirostris, Prjev. Mongol i Strana Tangut. ii. p. 95, tab. xiv. 

 (1876), P. humii, Sharpo, op. cit. p. 433 (1888). 



g ad. (Sikhiin). Crown, nape, sides of neck, and upper parts generally 

 deep brown, with dusty brown margins ; rump pale carmine ; wings and 

 tail dark brown, with indistinct paler margins ; forehead, supercilium. 

 sides of the head below the eye, chin, throat, and breast carmine-rose, witli 

 silvery white spots ; rest of under parts dull brown, striped, chiefly on the 

 flanks, with blackish brown ; bill horn-brown, yellow at the base of the 

 lower mandible ; legs dark horn ; iris dark brown. Culmen 0'72, wing 4*5, 

 tail 3'5, tarsus 0'92 inch. The female has the upper parts duller than in 

 the male, the rump feathers margined with dull green, the under parts pale 

 fulvous, narrowly streaked with black, the breast tinged with buff. 



Hob. The Himalayas at elevations of from 10,000 to 17,000 

 feet, from Kashmir to Kan-su, Tibet, and Western China ; is 

 everywhere resident, passing the summer in the higher alti- 

 tudes, and wintering at lower levels. 



I find scarcely anything on record respecting its habits 

 beyond what Prjevalsky gives. He speaks of it as being shy 

 and frequenting rocky places in the mountains, never perching 

 on trees or bushes. Its call-note resembles that of Passer 

 domesticus, but is much louder, and its song, which in spring 

 is uttered from a stone or the point of a rock, is pleasing. 

 Stoliczka found a nest made of coarse grass in Rupshu near 

 the Thsomoriri lake, on the ground, in a little bush of the 

 Tibetan furze, the eggs in which were dirty white or greenish 

 with some dark brown spots. 



Pale specimens of this species have been described as 

 separable by Prjevalsky under the name of P. longirostris, and 

 by Dr. Sharpe under that of P. humii, but I am unable to 

 separate this form even subspecifically, and as regards the length 



