328 NOVELTIES. 



to be un described, and as they are certainly new to our Avi- 

 fauna, and so many ornithologists are .now collecting in the 

 Himalayas, I have thought it best to describe them at the risk 

 of their not proving new. 



The following are the dimensions taken from the dry skin : — 



Male. — Length, 5'75 ; wing, 3*0 ; tail, from vent, 2"25 ; 

 tarsus, 082 ; mid toe and claw, 0*75 ; bill, at front, 0'39. 



Female. — Length, 5*5 ; wing, 2'9 ; tail, from vent, 2*2 ; 

 tarsus, 075 ; mid toe and claw, - 7 ; bill, at front, 038. 



The wings are perhaps imperfect, but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 

 quills appear to be sub-equal and longest, and the first only 

 0*15 shorter. 



The tail only slightly forked, almost even. 



The upper mandible of the bill appears to have been a mo- 

 derately dark brown ; the lower yellowish horny ; the legs and 

 feet pale, yellowish, or fleshy brown. 



In the male the forehead, crown, occiput, back and scapulars 

 are a dark hair brown, most of the feathers narrowly, and incon- 

 spicuously, margined with pale-brown ; a broad line from the 

 nostrils over the eyes, the lores, cheeks, chin and throat, dull 

 dark crimson ; the feathers dusky at their bases ; the ear-coverts 

 and sides of the neck like the back, but more broadly margined 

 with very pale brown ; the wings, tail, and upper tail-coverts 

 hair brown ; the feathers with an excessively narrow pale brown 

 margin, and the median coverts rather more broadly tipped 

 with pale brownish pink : the rump pale rose color ; breast, 

 abdomen, vent, and lower tail-coverts pale rose color, paling 

 towards the lower tail-coverts, each feather dusky at the base 

 and with brown shafts or narrow brown shaft stripes. 



The female has the W 7 ings and tail hair brown ; the primaries, 

 their greater coverts, and rectrices narrowlj margined ; and the 

 secondaries, tertiaries, and all the greater coverts, except those of 

 the primaries, more broadly margined ; and the median coverts 

 tipped, with a pale somewhat rufescent brown. The whole of 

 the rest of the bird brownish white, paler on the lower surface, 

 most albescent on the chin, darker and more olivaceous on the 

 upper surface, each feather with a dark brown shaft stripe. 



Both above and below the female is much less rufescent than 

 that of rhodochroiis, saturatus, &c, the general tone of coloring 

 is more that of the female olrliodochlamys or Pyrrhospiza punicea. 



