IN JERDON OR STRAY FEATHERS. 515 



Otocorys longirostris, which fully confirmed the view I previ- 

 ously took,* viz., that these birds are nothing but long-billed 

 and rather large varieties of 0. pencillata, which appears to 

 increase somewhat in size as it is found further eastward, and 

 especially in the length of the bill. None of these specimens 

 has the black on the sides of the face divided by white as in 

 O. alpestris ; but the sides of the throat are continuously black, 

 though the white patch on the chin and upper throat is larger 

 than in examples from Lebanon. On the other hand, I find 

 a specimen labelled by Mr. Blanford himself Otocorys elwesi, 

 which is certainly not the same as those from Kulu, as the 

 black pectoral shield is divided from the black on the sides of 

 the face by a white patch as in 0. alpestris ; and it closely 

 agrees with the specimen from Tientsin referred to in my arti- 

 cle on 0. pencillata, and resembles 0. alpestris, but is paler, 

 has a longer bill, and the white on the head and throat is en- 

 tirely free from any tinge of yellow. As this article was going 

 to press, Mr. Blanford brought his type of Otocorys elwesi to 

 me for examination ; and, as I find it agrees with Mr. Swinhoe's 

 Tientsin specimen, 0. elwesi should be removed from the syno- 

 nyms of O. pencillata, it being merely a pale large-billed 

 form of 0. alpestris. 



i( 0. alpestris may be thus described : — 



ic Adult Male in Summer. — Forehead and a line over the eye, 

 chin, throat, hinder portion of the auriculars, and portion 

 bordering the facial patch, very pale sulphur yellow or white, 

 with a yellowish tinge ; forepart of the crown, lores and a 

 large facial patch extending through and behind the eye and 

 down the sides of the upper neck, together with a large shield 

 extending over the lower part of the neck and upper breast, jet 

 black ; feathers on the sides of the crown above the eye elonga- 

 ted, forming a tuft on each side ; crown from the ceutre, nape, 

 back, rump and scapulars, pale brownish red, greyer on the nape 

 and redder on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; dorsal feathers 

 and scapulars with dusky brown centres ; quills dark brown, 

 margined and tipped with greyish white ; the first primary, with 

 almost the whole of the outer web, white ; wing-coverts 

 pale reddish brown, also with whitish margins and tips ; the 

 two central rectrices reddish brown, with dark brown centres ; 

 the remaiuing tail-feathers black, the outermost having the 

 outer web nearly to the base white, the rest being narrowly 

 edged with whitish at the tip ; lower part of the breast, 

 abdomen, and under tail-coverts white ; flanks reddish brown, 

 slightly streaked with darker brown on the upper flanks, the 



* This I have long held also.— Ed. 



