314 THE BIRDS OF GILGIT. 



$ . Length, 6| inches ; wing, 4£ ; tail, 2| ; tarsus, | j bill in 



front ^. 



$ .' 2 Length, 6£ inches ; wing, 4 ; tail, 2-,\ ; tarsus, f j bill in 



front, h 



152.— Emberiza leucocephala, Gm. (712). 



Occasional specimens secured in December, January, Feb- 

 ruary, and March. The specimens obtained in the latter 

 month are assuming the breeding plumage. 



153.— Emberiza stracheyi, Moore. (714). 



Extremely common all the winter, but goes higher about 

 the beginning of April, and breeds at about 8,000 feet. I took 

 two nests (second brood, no doubt) in the first week of August. 

 Both were on the ground under a stone. One had only one 

 egg in it ; the other three. 



I also took a nest with three fresh eggs in it on 1st June at 

 9,000 feet, and took two nests, each with three eggs quite fresh, 

 on 23rd and 24th June. 



The colouring of all Gilgit specimens is paler than that of 

 Kashmir or Simla individuals. 



dark 6pot near the base of the lower mandible and a short paler mandibular stripe 

 on either side of the upper throat. At the very base of the throat is a gamboge 

 yellow band or blotch, of varying degrees of intensity and size, according to sex, 

 age and season, almost entirely wanting in quite young birds, and apparently attaining 

 its fullest development in old males only. The breast and the lower parts 

 generally are similarly colored to the throat, but somewhat paler, becoming almost 

 albescent on the centre of the abdomen, vent and lower tail-coverts, and these latter 

 and the feathers of the sides and flanks are darker centred, as indeed, though to a less 

 degree, are often those of the upper abdomen. The axillaries and lower wing-coverts 

 are yellowish white, mingled along the edge of the wing with light grey brown. 

 The back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts are dull brown, more earthy in 

 some, more of a wood brown in others, and varying a good deal in shade. The 

 feathers of the interscapulary region have a dark brown stripe on the inner webs, 

 and a fawny or creamy patch on the outer near the tips, producing the usual 

 sparrow-like markings. The scapulars are similar, but have the pale patches less marked. 

 The feathers of the upper tail-coverts are margined towards the tips with pale 

 fawny or creamy white. The tail is deep brown, margined with creamy (which 

 occupies nearly the whole of the outer web of the outermost feathers) and paling 

 just at the tips, each feather with a nearly pure white spot on the inner web near 

 the tip, almost obsolete on the central feathers, and growing successively larger and 

 larger on each succeeding pair. The quills, winglet and greater coverts are dark 

 brown towards the tips, light hair brown elsewhere, everywhere more or less narrowly 

 or broadly margined and tipped with pale fawn or fawny white, which colour 

 occupies nearly the entire outer web of the first primary. 



The lesser coverts are plain brown, like the rump, or nearly so, while the median 

 coverts are marked much like the interscapulary region aud scapulars. 



Some birds are altogether darker and browner, some greyer and more ashy, while 

 in some a warm fawny almost rufous tinge prevails. 



The males seem to average a little larger than the females. Gilgit birds are 

 larger than any others I have seen. Wings in males from various localities before 

 me vary from 37 to 4*1, and in females from 36 to 4 0. 



The range of this .species is Central and Southern Europe, North Africa, Asia 

 Minor, Persia, Turkestan, Siberia and Northern China. Gilgit, the extreme north- 

 western corner of the British Asian Empire, and Northern Afghanistan are the only 

 places where, so far, it is known to have occurred within our limits,— A. O. H.J 



