collected in Transcaucasia. 417 



94. Sitta europeea caucasica Ilchw. 



This form was described by Dr. Reichenow in 1901 (0. M. 

 1901, p. 53) from the Northern Caucasus, but some half-a- 

 dozen Transcaucasian skins agree closely with it. They are 

 of the type of S. europeea L., but the under surface is light 

 rusty, more intense than in S. ccesia Wolf, while even the 

 cheeks and the throat are clearly tinged with rufous (they 

 are white in S. europeea and S. ccesia) and the upper chin 

 alone is whitish. Bill much shorter than in the forms just 

 named, only some 15-16 mm. from the frontal feathers. 

 On the forehead I can see no white. 



95. Sitta syriaca parva, n. subsp. 



Four winter specimens * from Akhalzikh, sex not ascer- 

 tained. Wing 75-80 mm. (75, 77, 79, 80 : mean 77| mm., 

 or 305 inches) ; tail 46-49 mm. ; tarsus 20-22 mm. ; culmen 

 16 5-19 mm., its depth at base 4'5-4'8 mm. Upper surface 

 bluish ashy grey, somewhat paler and greyer than in S. ccesia 

 and S. europaea, but darker than in S. rupicola Blanf., as 

 represented on tab. xv. of his work ('East. Pers.'), without 

 white or black on the forehead. From the nostrils through 

 the eye and down the neck to the back runs a black stripe, 

 much longer than in the last-named figure, and much better 

 defined and wider in front of the eye — as long and wide, in 

 fact, as in my S. europeea L. from Ssimbirsk and Livonia. 

 Chin, throat, chest, and cheeks with the ear-coverts pure 

 white, gradually becoming dull pale rufous on the lower 

 breast, flanks, and belly. Axillaries pale greyish ; under 

 tail-coverts pale grey, indistinctly edged with pale rufous. 

 Primaries brown, edged with whitish at the basal parts of 

 the inner webs ; secondaries plumbeous-grey, somewhat 

 tinged with brownish. First primary long and broad : 

 4^ mm. wide and 23-27 mm. long (measured below from 

 base) ; second about equal to secondaries. Tail plumbeous 

 grey, quite uniformly coloured from base to tip, only some- 

 what more bluish on the central rectrices, and a trifle more. 



* Two more specimens have since been received. 



SEtt. VIII. — VOL. VI. 2 E 



