THE BIRDS OF GILG1T. 325 



79— Saxicola isabellina, Rtipp. (491). 



None were observed in the first year. In the second year 

 several specimens were procured. They appeared about March 

 6th, and were tolerably common till the end of the month. One 

 specimen was secured on April 21st. 



This is not Saxicola cenanthe (No. 491 of Jerdon) as identified 

 by Messrs. Hume, Dresser, and Blanford. Jerdon's descrip- 

 tion is correctly applicable to the true «S. cenanthe.* 



The female has the plumage of a paler tone throughout than 

 the male. 



80.— Saxicola cenanthe, f Lin. (491a). 



Two specimens were obtained, and about half a dozen others 

 observed, during some heavy weather in March, but never seen 

 at any other time. Both are males, and are assuming the 

 summer plumage, as shown in the plate in Dresser's " Birds 

 of Europe." 



Mr. Hume has identified Saxicola mianthe, as described by 

 Jerdon, with &. isabellina; and in this he has been followed 

 by Messrs. Blanford and Dresser in their exhaustive mono- 

 graph of the genus. But Jerdon's description and the detailed 

 description given in that monograph of S. cenanthe correspond 

 exactly both with each other and with the specimens now 

 brought from Gilgit. (In the fifth liue of the description 

 " outer" is probably a misprint for " other/') And as Jerdon, 

 who very accurately describes the species, states that he got 

 a specimen near Mhow, there is no ground for excluding 

 S. cenanthe from the list of Indian birds.* 



* [ I think that the correctness of these remarks is doubtful. 



Jerdon's description is clearly a compiled one — " male above ashy with a brown tinge,", 

 applies neither to the summer nor winter plumage of cenanthe. In the summer this 

 latter is pale slate grey ; in the winter a dull brown, with more or less of a light red- 

 dish buff tinge towards the tips of the feathers. On the other hand the whole descrip- 

 tion applies fairly well to isabellinus in winter, except " under wing-coverts blackish, 

 with white edgings," which properly could only apply to cenanthe in summer plumage. 

 In the second place plenty of other specimens of isabellinus have been obtained in 

 the tract of country in which Mhow is situated, namely, the Indore Agency, but never 

 one of cenanthe. In the third place Jerdon identified all our Etawah, Agra, Cawnpore, 

 &c, isabellinus as his cenanthe. 



Under these circumstances I have not the least doubt that, be the sources what they 

 may from which he compiled his curt and by-no-means satisfactory description, the bird 

 he intended to represent under his 491 was really isabellinus. — A. O. H.j 



f [Saxicola cenanthe has never been fully described in Steay Feathees, and in my 

 opinion Jerdon's description under 491, however unsatisfactory, applies better to isabel- 

 linus than to cenanthe, and I therefore ex tract a description from Mr. Seebohm's Cata- 

 logue : — 



"Adult male in breeding plumage. — General colour of the upper parts pale 

 slaty grey; forehead and eye-stripe, which extends to the nape, white ; lores and 

 upper part of the ear-coverts black ; wings and wing-coverts nearly black, a few traces 

 of the autumnal buff margins to the feathers generally left ; rump and upper tail- 

 coverts white ; tail white, except the terminal three- fifths of the two centre feathers, 

 and the terminal fourths of the others, which are nearly black ; under parts very pale 

 buff, slightly darker on the throat and breast ; axillaries and under wing-coverts white, 

 with dark centres; inner margin oi quills brown; bill, legs, feet and claws black; 



42 



