Fringilauda Nemoricola et Sordida. 43 



and certainly this is the case in regard to his supposed Nemoricola 

 which he describes as being- a winter visitant to the lesser ranges. 

 I have seen positively hundreds of specimens collected during the 

 winter in the lesser ranges of the North- Western Himalayas^ and 

 one and all of them belonged to the species,, which must now be 

 known as Sordida. 



The true Nemoricola is the one obtained in the neighbourhood 

 of Darjeeling. This I have ascertained by a comparison of the 

 Darjeeling specimens with Hodgson^s original drawings now 

 (owing to his great kindness^ which I cannot sufficiently acknow- 

 ledge) in my custody. 



The Eastern and the Western birds are very similar in general 

 appearance^ but the true Nemoricola is somewhat the larger, the 

 wings varying from 3*7 to 4'1 inches in the male^ and 3"63 to 

 3-92 inches in the female, against 3-7 to 3-9 inches in the male, 

 and 3*6 to 3*8 inches in the female of Sordida. Then althoug'h 

 the plumage in both species is excessively variable, according to 

 age and season, the eastern form is as a rule darker and brighter, 

 and the wing bars formed by the tippings of the median and 

 greater coverts, are pure white or very nearly so, and as a rule 

 very conspicuous, while these bars in Sordida are, almost without 

 exception, a dull pale buif or fulvous white, and in many speci- 

 mens very ill-marked. The feet of the two species do not differ 

 perceptibly, though perhaps the claws in Sordida are a hair's 

 breadth the longest. 



The bills in both species vary a good deal, but I cannot dis- 

 cover any constant difference in this respect between the two. 



There is, however, one trifling but constant difference which, 

 independent of the size and the wing- bars, enables us to separate 

 Nemoricola ixom Sordida at a, glance. The axillaries in Sordida 

 (and I write now with 68 specimens before me, killed at various 

 seasons of the year, in all the different localities above enume- 

 rated) are invariably either pure white or digUly greyish or 

 brownish white. In the true Nemoricola, on the other hand, the 

 axillaries are invariably more or less strongly tinged with yel- 

 low. In some good specimens in which the axillaries have been 

 preserved intact, a pure dull yellow ; in some, rather of a dull 

 pale orange ; but in no single specimen is the color not distinctly 

 traceable, although of course it varies both in intensity and 

 . extent in different individuals. 



This constant though slight difference, taken in connection, 

 with the differences in size, in tone of coloring, and in the wing • 

 bars, is, I think, quite sufficient to justify specific separation,'and 

 warrant our admission of Fringilaida Sordida, Stoliczka, into our 

 Avifauna. 



A. O. H. 



