BETWEEN MUSSOORI AND GANGAOTRI IN MAY 1874. 239 



bird that I have is most surely distinct from P. indica. I 

 once held a contrary opinion, when I knew less about the two 

 birds, but I am now a convert to Mr. Blyth's conclusion. I 

 believe that Mr. Swinhoe also regarded the two as distinct. 

 However, I am open to conviction upon good evidence, not 

 mere assertion,* 



486. — Pratincola ferrea, Hodgson, 



Tolerably common about Mussoori, and found as far up as 

 Derali. This bird, in its mode of nesting, eggs, habits, and 

 notes, together with its song, is a true Chat with sylvine ten- 

 dencies, and is far removed from the Flycatchers. 



503.— Ruticilla frontalis, Vigors. 



The only Redstart seen up the valley. From Derali to 

 Gangaotri it was common. Its song is very inferior. 



* Dr. N. Severzow (Anglice, SevertzofF ) remarks (Cabanis, J. fur O., 1873, p. 359), 

 " Against this Hume unites Pratincola indica with P. rubicola, as I think incorrectly, 

 for the inconstancy of the diagnostic points, which he relies on, appears to me to 

 depend on an inadmissible selection of these, namely, ' pure blackness' (indica) or 

 ' mottledness ' (rubicola) on the back. This I myself also found to be variable, and 

 did not believe in P. indica until Dr. Cabinis taught me the real distinguishing points, 

 which I have found to hold good in Indian, Turkistanic, Uralic, and Siberian specimens, 

 even in the autumn plumage when the broad fawn colored feather borders do not allow 

 the faintest trace of black to be seen on the back. These positive distinguishing 

 characters are differences in marking, conditioned by the histologic differences of the 

 structure of the plumage on the upper surface of the body. (Diese festen Kennzei- 

 chen sind Zeichnungsunterschiede, durch histologische Structurverschiedenheiten der 

 Federn am Oberkorper bedingt). 



Peatincola indica. 



S Dorso maculis centralibus nigria 

 extus rotundatis, marginibus plumarum 

 autumno late fulvescentibus, aestate deci- 

 duis, aestate dorso nigro, plumis latis, 

 rotundatis, mucronatis, uropygio candido, 

 apicibus autumno rufis, aestate deciduis, 

 maculis scapalibus nullis. 



? Uropygio rufo 



Pbatincola bubicola. 



(? Dorso maculis scapalibus nigrofu3- 

 cis, elongatis, autumno aliquot dilutius 

 fusco marginatis ; aestate, si marginea 

 detriti, plumis dorsalibus angustis, acumi- 

 natis ut Sturno ; TJropygium album, 

 apicibus autumno rufis, maculis scapali- 

 bus elongatis nigris. 



? Uropygio etiam maculato. 



" The geographical distribution of both forms, (one may take them for species or 

 sub-species,) is also against their union. Por in Russia between the Dnieper and 

 Volga there is a belt about 150 miles in breadth where neither form breeds . 



" Westward is rubicola, whose limit in Germany towards the east is however about 

 the Elbe (Borggreve), then a northern limit from the upper Elbe to the lower Dnieper. 



" Eastward is indica, the northern limit of which rises rapidly from 50° N. Lat., 

 on the River Usen, to the south of the Ural Mountains and then along their eastern 

 slope to 58° N. Lat. ; in Siberia from Irtysch southwards. On the Ural River indica 

 has also its southern limits, and there (about 47° N. Lat.) meets P. Hemprichi, but this 

 southern limit becomes further east a western limit, naturally with a border zone 

 where both occur. 



" P. Hemprichi appears geographically to force itself between rubicola, indica. and 

 the South African P. pastor, and to separate them." 



As to the diagnosis, I shall have more to say hereafter; as to the geographical limits 

 thus assigned, I can only say I am puzzled. Middendorf got Hemprichi on the 

 Stanovoi Mountains, Radde on the middle Amoor, and if Dr. Severzow's views are 

 correct, this species not only divides rubicola, indica, and pastor, but it cuts off the 

 Trans-Volgan, so-called indica, from Indian indica. 



I take this opportunity of noting that I still consider, as I always have done, that 

 Dr. Stoliczka'a P. macrorhyncha from C'utch is nothing but Hemprichi. — Ed., S. F. 



