Otocoris Elwesi. S7 



Blatiford, must be relegated to the limbo of synonyms. My 

 series of these birds is extensive. I have first Captain Elwes'a 

 specimen, one of the supposed 0. Mwesi from the Kang-ra Lama 

 Sikhim, and this I have compared with specimens from the 

 northern portion of Cashmere, the Sutledg-e Valley beyond 

 Chini, Ladak, the head of the Pangong- Lake, Sanksu, the Khoosh 

 Maidan, and the Valley of the Karakash. 



I find that not one single one of the distinctions pointed out 

 between Elwesi and Longirostris are reliable. First, shorter bill. 

 The length of the bill in this species varies very greatly, first 

 according to sex, and secondly, I think according to age. My 

 largest Longirostris has a bill measured from forehead to tip a 

 little exceeding 0'6 inch; my smallest, a female from Ladak, has 

 the bill thus measured only 0°36 inch. The Kangra Lama speci- 

 men has the bill thus measured 0*4 inch, and I have two speci- 

 mens, one from the head of the Pangong Lake, and the other 

 from Sanksu, which not only exactly correspond in length of bill, 

 but in all other essentials with the Kangra Lama specimens. 



Second. — As to the legs being black instead of brown. This 

 difiference appears to be seasonal. A female killed in June in the 

 Upper Sutledge Valley, and another killed in August 3rd, in the 

 Karakash Valley, have the legs quite brown. A male killed in 

 Cashmere, in the autumn, has them black, and so have all the 

 October birds. So it is no wonder that the Kangra Lama bird, 

 killed on the 4th October, should have them black, the fact 

 being that between Jime and the end of September they appear 

 to vary from fleshy brown to almost black. 



Third. — The paler tints of the u.pper plumage and the purer 

 white of the lower parts. These are entirely matters of age, sex, 

 and season, and the Kangra Lama bird is not even quite as pale 

 above or as pure a white below, as some of the Ladak birds. 



FoiirtJi. — Specimens of 0. Longirostris in the Indian Museum 

 are said to have no black frontal band at the base of the bill, 

 while the black of the crown is not distinctly defined, but passes 

 into the brown of the nape. This is equally true of some of my 

 specimens ; but then some again of my specimens have the 

 black frontal band broad and well marked, and the black of the 

 crown well defined, in fact much better defined than in Captain 

 Elwes^s specimen. I cannot exactly explain the changes, but it 

 is quite clear from examining a series that the bird passes gradu- 

 ally from a no black-frontal band to a broad black-frontal band 

 stage, and the Kangra Lama specimen that I possess is only 

 half way between these two extremes. 



Wolfs figure of this species in the Pro. Zol. Soc. 1855, p. 

 215, is in the intermediate stage, with the black frontal band 



