116 FURTHER ADDITIONS TO THE SINDH AVIFAUNA. 



while the secondaries have almost the whole of the outer web, 

 from the base nearly to the tip, pure white, forming a very- 

 conspicuous white alar patch ; bill and legs, black ; iris, brown. 

 Total length, about 6 inches; culmen, 0"5 ; wing, 3'1 ; tail, 215 ; 

 tarsus, 082. 



" The Adult Female differs from the female of Ruticilla 

 plmnicura in having the upper parts greyer; the fore- 

 head and sides of the head dirty greyish white, the latter 

 tinged with brownish ash ; underparts much greyer and more 

 sooty than in R. phoenicura ; the breast only tinged with dull 

 greyish orange. 



(i Obs. — There is, comparatively speaking, but little variation 

 in the specimens I have examined, but the amount of white on 

 the wing in the male varies somewhat, and in some specimens 

 the back is very dark, and marked with black." 



To hodgsoni it bears a much closer resemblence. It differs in 

 havino- a broader and purer white frontal band than hodgsoni, 

 in having rather more of the rump orange ferruginous, in 

 havino- more white on the wing, the white in hodgsoni being 

 confined to the tertiaries and hinder secondaries, while in 

 mesoleuca it extends on to several of the primaries, The 

 black of the throat descends much further on to the breast 

 in hodgsoni, and the middle of the abdomen in mesoleuca is 

 mottled with pure white. So much for the male. I have no 

 female mesoleuca, but to judge from the plate of this, the female 

 of hodgsoni is a darker brown above, has no pale frontal band, 

 and is less albescent on the abdomen. 



The female Ruticilla hodgsoni has no albescent margins to 

 the primaries as the female of mesoleuca appears to have. 



The following are the dimensions and description of Mr. 

 Murray's specimen, a male : — 



Length, 6*3; wing, 33; tail, 2 -8 ; tarsus, 078 ; bill from 

 forehead, 0'6. 



A narrow frontal band, the lores, chin, throat, cheeks, front, 

 and frontal half of sides of neck, black ; breast, abdomen, lower 

 tail-coverts, axillaries and greater part of wing-lining, orange 

 ferruginous ; the middle of the abdomen mottled with pure white 

 and lower tail-coverts, paler ; lower surface of the quills, delicate 

 satin °rey ; a very broad white frontal band, extending back- 

 wards to the eye above the narrow black frontal band ; crown, 

 occiput, nape and entire mantle, slaty grey ; rump, upper tail- 

 coverts and tail, except two central feathers, which are more or 

 less brown, orange ferruginous ; wings, brown ; tertiaries and 

 secondaries, broadly, and more or less of the hinder primaries, 

 narrowly, margined on their outer webs, in the case of the 

 two former for uearly their entire length, with pure white. 



