240 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



by its smaller size, and by the color of its breast and superci- 

 liary stripe, which are pinker in the present species, and more 

 rusty in the European form. The Himalayan form, rosaceus, 

 Hodg., differs from both in the bright yellow tinge of its 

 axillaries. 



The following is a resume of the dimensions recorded in the 

 flesh from a considerable series : — 



Length, 6 to 6'75 ; expanse, 9'75 to 105 ; wings, 3 to 3'4; 

 tail, from vent, 2"5 to 3*25 ; bill, from gape, about 0"8 ; bill, 

 at front, 0°45 to0 - 49; hind claw averages about 0*5; tarsus, 

 0-8 to about 0-93. 



In winter plumage the whole of the top and back of the 

 head, back, scapulars, rump, aud upper tail coverts are a pale 

 dingy olive brown, all the feathers with deep brown centres, or 

 central stripes, narrowest on the head, broadest and most 

 conspicuous on the interscapulary region ; the primaries arid 

 their greater coverts aud the secondaries pale hair brown ; 

 the first primary narrowly margined on the outer web with pure 

 white ; the rest of the primaries and their greater coverts 

 similarly margined with pale olivaceous ; the secondaries 

 with a pale yellowish brown ; tertiaries elongate, a darker 

 brown, rather more broadly margined, with a somewhat paler 

 shade ; secondary greater coverts, and median coverts, inter- 

 mediate in color between tertials aud primaries, margiued on 

 the outer web with a very pale dingy olive brown, aud 

 rather more conspicuously tipped with dull white. The 

 first three primaries are equal and longest, the fourth is 

 O05 shorter, the fifth is 0*45 to 0'5 shorter; the longest 

 tertial is generally about 0"2 shorter than the longest 

 primary, but this varies. The second to the fourth pri- 

 maries are conspicuously emarginate on the outer web. 

 All the first four primaries are very feebly sinuated on 

 the inner web about 0'75 from the tip; the tail feathers 

 are brown, narrowly margined with paler brown; the external 

 tail feathers are mostly white, but they have a pale brown 

 streak on the outer web towards the tip ; the basal one- 

 fourth on the inner web is brown, and this color extends up- 

 wards on the outer portion of the inner web for some distance 

 in the direction of the point ; the next tail feather has a tri- 

 angular white spot on the inuer web at the tip, and a narrow 

 white or whitish margin to the outer web. There is a narrow, 

 and not very conspicuous supercilium from the nostrils over 

 the eye, yellowish white, but more or less tinged with rufous 

 even in birds killed on Christmas day; the ear-coverts are 



