collected in Transcaucasia. -til) 



syriaca 

 syriaca typ. fp ers i a » t rupicola. paroa, n. sp. 



Wing 3-74-3-80 3-40-374 2-90-3-15 2 95-3-15 



Culmen 0-95-103 079-0-85 0-65-074 



Tarsus 1-05-1-16 085-092 0-78-0-86 



It seems to me that S. parva can be always distinguished 

 from its congeners without actually comparing the skins; 

 and if it stands in my list as only subspecifically distinct 

 from S. syriaca this is merely because I had no more than 

 four specimens of it for comparison*. 



Hitherto no Sitta with plainly coloured tail-feathers (that 

 is, unspotted with white or rufous on the lateral rectrices) 

 has been recorded from the Caucasus — or, indeed, from within 

 the limits of the Russian Empire. 



96. Cyanistes caeruleus (L.). 



I cannot find any difference between my Transcaucasian 

 specimens and those from Germany : both differ from 

 Ssimbirsk birds in having somewhat less white on the bellv, 

 in the darker blue crown, the considerably darker blue 

 wings with narrower whitish transverse band, and the darker 

 greyish-green back not so much suffused with yellowish. 

 My Lenkoran (Talysh) skin is as pale yellowish in its back- 

 coloration as are all Ssimbirsk (Middle Wolga) birds, and 

 has as wide a wing-bar ; still it is much paler and duller on 

 the crown and wings. 



This Lenkoran bird must be very near to C. persicus Blanf . 

 (I have no Persian specimens, and Mr. Blauford's figure — 

 East. Pers. ii. t. xvi. f. 2 — with its leaden-grey crown and 

 wings does not accord with his description " dull verditer- 

 blue" and " dull blue," op. cit. p. 230), and the form from 

 Eastern Russia (Orenburg-Ssimbirsk) is rightly regarded 

 by Messrs. Sarudny and Loudon as a separate subspecies 

 (G\ cceruleus orientais Sur. et Loud. Orn. Mon. 1905, 

 p. 105). 



* Is this S. syriaca obscura of Sarudny and Loudon (Orn. Mon. 1905, 

 p. 76) from Persia, said to be darker than <S'. syriaca typ., just like 

 S. neumayeH Miehali. ? The description given is evidently merely pre- 

 liminary. 



2 v 2 



<v Ii <W 



