57 [Yol. xvi. 



Hah. Lacus Saissan-noor et fiuvius Kara-Irtysh. 



'' The Wren of Tarbagutai is also new. Unfortunately T 

 only procured two young* birds, with the quills and rectrices 

 not yet quite developed. As the young Wrens are more 

 difficult to distinguish than the adult ones, I will give 

 a more detailed description of my bird. 



'' Size as in the common Anorthura troglodytes of a 

 corresponding age. Dark above, as in A. nipalensis. 

 Pileum uniformly greyish-chocolate brown ; colour of the 

 hind neck rather clearer, and passing gradually into the 

 dark-brown colour of the back, which becomes more red on the 

 rump and upper tail-coverts ; interscapulium and scapulars 

 with almost invisible traces of darker cross-bars ; rump 

 and upper tail-coverts quite uniform. Lores and sides 

 of the head dark brownish-ashy, ear-coverts with distinct 

 pale stripes. A fairly distinct ashy-grey superciliary 

 stripe. Underside brownish-ashy, mottled as in the young 

 A. troglodytes, but more distinctly. Sides of the body 

 greyish-brown, with faint but distinct cross-bars. Under 

 tail-coverts dark-brown, with black cross-bars and white 

 tips. Ground colour of the wing the same as that of 

 the back, but with the black markings more distinct than 

 in A. troglodytes. Rectrices brown, with very distinct 

 black cross-bars. Bill and feet darker than in A. troglodytes, 

 and of a greyish-horn colour. 



'^Of the palsearctic Wrens, the following forms on account 

 of their geographical distribution should be compared with 

 the Tarbagutai Wren : — A. troglodytes, A. pallida, A. neglecta, 

 and A. nipalensis. A. pallida is at once excluded by its 

 pale colouring. From the young A. troglodytes, the 

 Tarbagatai Wren differs in the darker and more smoky 

 upper side, ashy underside and sides of the head, grey 

 supercilium, uniform top of the head, the much more 

 sharply barred wings and tail, the barred under tail-coverts 

 with white tips, and the cross-markings on the sides of the 

 belly. The dark Wrens of the Himalaya and South-east 

 Mongolia, viz., A. nipalensis and A. neglecta, though more 

 nearly allied, are also distinct, as might be expected froiii 



