66 MOUNTAIN AH GENT OB. 



April, 1856, yet I am inclined to think that the eastern bird is of a 

 somewhat darker colour. One specimen sent to me by Herr Wulfius, 

 shot at St. Alga Bay in February, 1859, 44° N.L., was of so lively a 

 colour that 1 never saw but one specimen like it, which was among 

 some individuals freshly moulted, killed on the Bareja mountains. My 

 specimens agree well with Naumann's figure, pi. 92., fig. 2, but the 

 feathers on the breast and belly are not so much rubbed off, leaving 

 the grey middle space with a ground border or edge. I cannot find 

 any sexual distinctive marks. The width of the band over the eye- 

 brow is variable. In respect to size, all my specimens from Mongolia 

 are larger than those obtained farther eastward. In the living birds 

 the upper part of the beak was very black, the lower part, especially 

 at the root, lighter; the feet a dull whitish yellow; the claws grey 

 brown. Iris a light yellow brown. 



This bird is not found in the highly mountainous region of the west, 

 at least I could not find it either in the Eastern Sajan or near the 

 Lake of Baikal. On the other hand it was seen not. rarely on its 

 passage at the Tarei-ISTor as early as March 16th., (1856,) when the 

 advanced part of the flight were first seen, the rest following about 

 a month later. I saw none of these birds in autumn, but a year 

 later when the autumn passage had closed, and ice had appeared on 

 the Amoor, I shot two as they were bustling about among the willows 

 on the shore." 



The following is Temminck's description of this bird: — "The adult 

 male has a hood of deep black covering the head and occiput; 

 a large equally black band passes below the eyes, and covers the* 

 orifices of the ears; a large yellow eyebrow takes its origin at the 

 base of the beak, and is continued to the nape; the upper parts of 

 the body and the scapularies are of an ashy russet, marked with large 

 longitudinal spots of a brick red. Wings of an ashy brown, bordered 

 with grey russet; two rows of small yellow points form on the wing 

 a double band; tail of a unicolorous brown, but the feather shafts of 

 a russet brown. All the inferior parts are of an Isabel yellow, varied 

 on the crop with brown spots, and on the flanks with longitudinal 

 spots of a grey russet; base of the beak yellow, point brown; feet 

 yellowish. Length five inches three or four lines. Tlie female is of- 

 a blackish brown on the head, on the occiput, and on the auditory 

 orifices. It does not otherwise differ from the male." 



I have much pleasure in giving here a figure of the egg of Ac- 

 centor 77iontanellus, kindly sent me by Professor Moquin-Tandon, with 

 the following remarks: — "My two eggs of this bird are exactly alike 

 in shape and colour; they are twenty -three millimetres in long diameter. 



