318 THE BIRDS OF GILGIT. 



64.— Oreoecetes* cinclorhynchus, Vig. (353). 



Since my leaving Gilgit, Dr. Scully writes that he procured 

 a single immature specimen in Gilgit late in the autumn ; 

 probably a straggler from Darel. 



65.— Monticola saxatilis, Lin. (351 ter). 



A number in immature plumage appeared each year in 

 autumn. 



Two young males, in plumage corresponding to that 

 described by Dresser in the l< Birds of Europe/' were obtained on 

 the 21st August and 6th September. 



Length, 7 - 6 inches and 7*75 ; wing, 4*45 and 4'65 ; tail, 2'5 

 and 2 3 ; tarsus, 1*1 and 1*12. Irides, red-brown. No adult 

 birds of this species were observed. 



66— Turdus ruficollis, Pall. (364). 



One specimen secured in January, the only one seen. 



[The throat and breast are a deep Vandyke brown, with a 

 ferruginous gloss and narrow ferruginous borders to the tips 

 of the feathers. 



The uniform dark throat and the pure rufous of the tail 

 distinguish this species from T. atrogalaris.'f — G. F. L. M.] 



* [This generic name is thus spelt in the Ibis. Gray, when constructing the name, 

 spelt it Orocetes, and to me this seems the right form to adopt. But whichever way 

 it is spelt, it cannot possibly stand. Either Petrophila of Swainson, or Monticola 

 of Boie, must be adopted. — A. O. H.] 



+ [I cannot quite understand this. I have over thirty specimens of ruficollis from 

 China, Assam, Munipur, Sikhim, the Bhutan Duars, &c, now before me, and in not 

 one of these is either the breast or throat " a deep vandyke brown, with a ferruginous 

 gloss and narrow ferruginous borders to the tips of the feathers ;" not one has an 

 ** uniform dark throat." 



In old adult males the chin, throat and breast are an absolutely uniform rusty 

 rufous, brighter in some specimens and with more of a chestnut tinge in others. In 

 somewhat younger males, there is a single narrow ill-defined mandibular stripe of 

 small dusky spots down each side of the throat In still younger males these dark 

 stripes are broader and more conspicuous. Younger birds still are like the females, 

 except that I am doubtful whether the young males ever have dusky spots on the 

 breast. The adult females have the centre of the throat creamy or rufous white, 

 spotted with rusty rufous, and the mandibular lines of spots well marked, almost 

 black, in many specimens, and continued round behind the ear-coverts. The breast 

 is a duller rusty rufous than in the males ; the feathers are more or less fringed with 

 creamy or buffy white, and the breast is more or less thickly dotted about with some- 

 what sagittate shaped blackish brown spots. In younger females, again, the rufous of 

 the breast is very faint and mingled with the ashy brown of the upper surface ; the 

 rufous spottings on the throat are almost wanting, and the darker spots on the breast 

 are more or less obsolete. 



As to the tail it must not be supposed that the whole of this is pure rufous ; even 

 in the oldest adult males the terminal inch of both webs of the central feathers is ashy 

 brown, and there is more or less of this same colour on the next three or four pairs 

 of feathers, at least on the outer webs towards the tips. Some quite adult males have 

 the whole of the two central feathers ashy brown. In many young birds the whole 

 of the outer webs of all the tail feathers, except the two or three outer ones quite at 

 their bases, are of this same brown; but at all ages the inner webs of the outer tail 

 feathers are rufous, generally pure, but sometimes a little clouded with ashy brown, 

 and when the birds get a little older, the whole of the inner webs of all the lateral 

 tail feathers, in the males, become a pretty pure rusty rufous. In the females a 

 certain amount of ashy brown seems always to remain upon even the inner webs of 

 the lateral tail feathers towards their tips.— A. 0. H.J 



