BIRDS FROM NORTHERN AND WESTERN PERSIA. 853 



also saw flocks of adults and juveniles at Qazvin on 20th June. A series of 

 breeding birds from any part of Mesopotamia or Persia is particularly desirable, 

 as a large number of very closely allied local forms have been described and ac 

 present we know very little about the variation of this species in any one locality. 



Chloris chloris chloris (L.) — Greenfinch. 

 1 J , Noglabar — 3rd March. 

 Greenfinches were common round Noglabar in early March and were 

 " singing ". I have no other record. The specimen agrees exactly with the 

 typical sub-species, which Zarudny has already recorded as resident in N. W. 

 Persia and the Caspian Provinces. 



Carduelis cannabina fringillirostris (Bp. and Schl.) ( ? ) — Zinnet. 

 4d', Qazvin — December 1918 and January 1919. 



A race of the Linnet was not rare at Qazvin in December 1918, and January 

 1919 small flocks sheltering from the terrific wind in corners of gardens and 

 similar places. T saw Linnets at Resht in the winter and found them preparing 

 to breed at Menjil 7th April. 



Zarudny records both C. cannabina fringillirostris and C c. cannabina as 

 breeding birds in many parts of N. Persia, from the N. W. to Khorassan. Har- 

 tert does not recoid C. c. cannabina in Asia at all. These birds are all much 

 paler on the upper parts than winter skins from Britain and Western Europe, 

 and can at once be separated from such skins. The wings measure only 81, 

 81, 82, 84 mm., wliich is less than the usual measurements of A. c. fringilU 

 rostris, to which race however I refer them by reason of their colour. 



Carduelis carduelis hdrmsi (Zarudny). — Goldfinch. 

 2$, Hamadan— 12th December 1918. 

 1 6 , Menjil — March. 



^m^duelis carduelis lozidoni, Zarudny. 



4 c5' , 2 5 » Resht. — January-February. 



Goldfinches were fairly common in winter at Karind, Hamadan and othc 

 places along the road through the plateau ; they frequented gardens and were 

 generally seen in quite small parties, or even a pair only. They belonged no 

 doubt to the race which breeds in the plateau, and which Cheesman saw feeding 

 fully fledged young at Taq-i-Girreh, on 24th May. I also found the same race 

 at Menjil early in April in small flocks in the olive trees. Goldfinches are reported 

 to breed quite commonly at Qazvin. At Resht an entirely different race of 

 Goldfinch is found in the winter, frequenting the wet pastures in flocks numbering 

 many hundreds and often thousands. Most of these flocks left Resht in the 

 middle of March, but I saw one party at Enzeli as late as 14th April. 



There is not the least difiiculty in separating these two sub-species, the one 

 which we believe to be resident in the plateau, and the other which occurs 

 in huge flocks in winter round Resht. The first is small, the wings of the females 

 from Hamadan measuring 75-76 mm., of the male from Menjil 77 mm.; the 

 colour of the back is grey-brown, and the rump grey, not white ; one encoim- 

 ters great difficulties when one attempts to unravel the nomenclature of the 

 Persian Goldfinches in order to name this race. Dr. Hartert is of opinion 

 that they are probably Carduelis c. Mrynsi, Zarudny, described from specimens 

 shot at Baku in April ; I have seen no specimens from Baku, but at any rat« 

 for the present this name may be accepted for the plateau Goldfinch. The 

 sjTionomy of this race is complicated by the fact that Zarudny first described 

 it as '' Carduelis elegans brevirostris or C . elangans minor '' (1889); in 1893 he 

 referred to it as Carduelis minor, Zarudny; and in 1911 (b) he renamed it Acanthus 

 hdrmsi, because the names brevirostris and minor were both pve-occupied in the 

 genus. As it is a sub-species of the Common Goldfinch we must speak of it as 

 Carduelis c. hdrmsi. The second race that which occurs at Resht in winter, 

 is very similar to C. c. carduelis both in size and in the colour of the back, but 



