IN JERDON OR STRAY FEATHERS. 425 



802 6w.«— Syrrhaptes tibetanus, Gould. 



Dimensions. — Male. — Length, 19 ; tail from vent, 8*5 ; ex- 

 panse, 30 ; wing", 10 ; second primary the longest ; first pri- 

 mary, 25 ; third primary, 0"35 ; fourth primary, I shorter. 

 Wings, when closed, reach to within 4*5 of end of tail ; the 

 longest, namely the central tail-feathers, exceed shortest by 

 4' 5 to 5. The females are somewhat smaller, and have the 

 elongated central tail-feathers considerably less developed. 



Description. — Bill and nails bluish horny ; soles whitish. 



Plumage. — Lores and forehead whitish, faintly tinged with 

 buff and dark shafted ; crown, occiput, and nape white, closely 

 and somewhat irregularly but closely barred with blackish 

 brown ; chin, throat, cheeks, ear-coverts, sides and front of neck, 

 and a narrow band across the back of the neck (not shown in 

 Gould's figure, but very conspicuous in adult male) bright 

 buffy yellow in the breeding season, white, tinged with the 

 same colour, in the winter ; lower part of the back of the 

 neck, upper back and upper breast white, slightly tinged vina- 

 ceous, with close regular narrow transverse blackish brown bars ; 

 the whole mantle, including the scapulars and tertiaries, vina- 

 eeous fawn colour, brightening to rufous buff along its (the 

 mantle's) exterior margin, with large conspicuous black blotches 

 on the inner webs of the scapulars, and everywhere ex- 

 cessively finely vermiculated with blackish brown, which is 

 scarcely perceptible without close examination on the upper 

 back and towards the tips of the elongated tertials ; the lower 

 back and rump are white, very beautifully vermiculated with 

 dark, somewhat greyish brown; upper tail-coverts similar, but 

 the ground colour tinged with rufous fawn ; central tail fea- 

 thers with the basal portions similar to the upper tail-coverts, but 

 with a slightly more vinaceous tinge, and with the elongated 

 attenuated portions, which in fine males are five inches in length, 

 black, with a slaty bloom on them ; primaries and their greater 

 coverts black, with a slaty bloom on them towards the tips ; the 

 hinder ones with a more or less extensive buffy white patch on 

 the inner web at the tip ; secondaries black, but with more or 

 less of the outer webs (less in the earlier — more in the later 

 ones) similar in colour to the tertiaries ; lateral tail-feathers 

 bright rufous buff, tipped with pure white, and with several 

 widely separated, moderately broad, more or less cuneiform 

 transverse black bars ; lower breast grey ; abdomen, sides, 

 flanks, vent, tibial and tarsal plumes, and shortest lower tail- 

 coverts white ; the leg feathers sometimes slightly tinged with 

 fulvous and with traces of narrow transverse barrings on the 

 tibia. 



