ItacarMdis PaiiMlii, Sp. Nov. 



Appruaones P. Nipalensis ; hut smaller, everywhere paler ; hill inteV' 

 mediate hetiveen Procarduelis and Propasser ; throat and hreast, uni- 

 colorous. 



More than a year ago Mr. Mandelli g-ave me^ witli a number 

 of Procarduelis Nipalemis, two males and one female of a ver}^ 

 similar species, which he was inclined to believe distinct. These 

 birds by some oversight have never been properly examined 

 until now. Oii comparing them I find that they are un- 

 doubtedly a new and unrecorded species ; at any rate they are 

 to be found neither in Hodgson's Drawings, Bon : and Schl :, 

 Monogriiphie des Loxiens, Jerdon, or any other work to which 

 I have access. At first sight the males may be easily confounded 

 with those of Nipalensis, but they are altogether paler than 

 this species; there is no dark band across the chest and along 

 the sides, and no dark band through the eye as in this species ; 

 and the bill, though quite as long, is much less cardueline in its 

 character and much broader. Indeed it is more like that of 

 Propasser BJiodocJirous than of P. NljMlensls ; the wmg however 

 has the three first primaries equal as in that of Nipalensis, and the 

 general style of coloring is closer to Procarduelis than that of 

 Propasser, and I therefore place it for the present under the 

 former. The wings in P. Nipalensis vary in tlie male from 

 3"4 to 3"6 inches; in the female from 3'2 to 3'45 inches, so that 

 the present species is considerably smaller. It was procured 

 during the cold season in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, and 

 appears to be common there, Mr. Mandelli having, if I remem= 

 ber right, a, considerable series. 



To Mr. Mandelli is entirely due the credit of discriminating 

 this species, as when first shewn to me I did not,, strange to say, 

 recognize its distinctness ; and it was only in course of arrang- 

 ing my museum that I came across the specimens, and remem- 

 bered how persistently he had assured me that it was not P. 

 Nipalensis . The bill is so very distinct, as also the coloring 

 of some parts, that I cannot now explain how I came to over- 

 look the bird. To Mr. Mandelli I may mention also belongs 

 the merit of discriminating P. Satitratus, Blanford, of which 

 he wrote to me, as distinct from any in Jerdon, long before 

 he sent the specimens to Mr. Blanford, which the latter de- 

 scribed. Indeed, my museum contains no less than six specimens 

 of this species, sent me by Mr. Mandelli, some of which I have 

 had by me nearly eighteen months ; but which I hesitated to 



