THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 625 



I find I cannot distinguish between drouynii of Verreatix and 

 leucurum of Seebolim_. though it may be possible to do so when we 

 have more material with the exact localities and dates given. 



The specimens in the British Museum have not been examined 

 and overhauled for a long time, and many appear to have been 

 misnamed. Thus, whilst two of Thorrold's and Bang's birds from 

 the Sok Pass in Tibet form the types of leucurum, another collected 

 near the Sok Pass by the Due d'Orleans is labelled tihetanum, and 

 others again from the same expedition are referred to leuourum^ 

 Further there are three beautiful specimens collected by Thorrold 

 and Bangs at the same place and at the same time as the types of 

 leucurum which are labelled tihetanum ; presumably they have been 

 so labelled because they have no white on their tails, but their grey 

 lateral tail patterns and very pale grey or white primaries show them 

 to be leucurum or drouynii. 



Verreaux type of drouynii was collected by Pere David at Moupin 

 and there are specimens from this locality in the Museum, labelled 

 tihetanum collected by Pere David which can, like Thorrold's and 

 Bangs' birds be distinguished at a glance from true tihetanum from 

 elsewhere by their whiter plumage, gi'ey, rather than black, bases to 

 the tails, and above all by their almost pure white wings with white 

 outer webs to their primaries. 



The white on the tail feathers of leucurum (vel. drouynii^ appears 

 to vary immensely. The ty^e S of leucurum^ has only the terminal 

 two or three inches of the tail feathers, together with the shafts and 

 narrow shaft stripes, black; the rest of the tail white running 

 through dark gTey into the black. The female type has very little 

 white on the tail, and in some other specimens there is none, hut in 

 every hird the hases of the lateral tail feathers, tvhether they have ivhite 

 an them or not, are grey, not glossy hlach as in true tihetanum. 



Verreaux in his Latin definition of drouynii writes, " rectricibus 

 basi albis," leading one to suppose that the bases of the tail feathers 

 are pure white, but in the French description he says of the outer 

 tail feathers, " Their rectrices, of which the rachis are black, and 

 greyish white on a portion of their bases." Both Elliott's plate 

 and that of Verreaux depict the bases of the tail feathers of a cjuite 

 dark grey, changing to black on their terminal halves. 



Elliott in his Monograph of the Fhasianidce points out that 

 drouynii differs from tihetanum '• first, by the colours or the prima- 

 ries which are brownish in G. tihetanum but greyish white in our 

 new species. But the greatest difference is that the outer tail 

 feathers are not only not black, but want the white spots so charac- 

 teristic in the other species. We would also remark that the 

 middle tail feathers are not so large, nor do they possess the 

 shining golden green of the birds described by Hodgson." It must 

 e remembered that the specimen which Hodgson made his type of 



