NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXIII. 191G. 93 



in winter plumage, is above pale ; subminuta on the other hand is rather dark, 

 and the underside of the former is practically white all over, while that of 

 subminuta is conspicuously streaked on the foreneck and chest, which would 

 certainly have been mentioned in the diagnosis. 



Therefore Totanus damacensis Horsf. is a synonym of Tringa ruficollis Pall., 

 and the " Long-toed Stint " must be called " Erolia subminuta" or rather " Erolia 

 minutilla subminuta" The two forms E. m. minutilla and A. m. subminuta agree 

 in their main features and are geographical representatives, as conceived bySeebohm 

 (Geog. Distrib. of Charadriidae, pp. 438, 439). 



ON THE FORMS OF BTJRRINTJS OEDICNEIfUS 



By ERNST HARTERT, Ph.D. 



IN Nov. Zool. xviii. p. 547, Lord Rothschild and I gave a review of the sub- 

 species of Burhinus oedicnemus which we knew at the time. I find that 

 this little review holds good. The fourth form we did not name, calling it 

 Oedicnemus oedicnemus subsp. It is the pale form of the Indian desert, extending 

 at least from Merw (Transcaspia) to East and South Persia, and Persian Balu- 

 chistan (Kafir-Kala and Bampur, N. Zarudny coll.), and over the Indian desert as 

 far east as Hissar (Sirsa). It is similar to B. oedicnemus saharae, but still paler, 

 less rnfescent-sandy, and with a slight greyish tinge; the blackish markings on 

 the npperside are not so large, the stripes on the breast are narrower, the dark 

 alar bar is less developed. We thought in 1911 that the name scolopax of S. G. 

 Gnielin might possibly refer to it, but we learn from Zarudny that in North 

 Persia the dark common B. o. oedicnemus occurs, while he calls the one from 

 East Persia " Oedicnemus indicus" and in Joum. f. Orn. 1911, p. 232, he says, 

 that specimens from East and South Persia " den Übergang zu 0. indicus Salvad. 

 vermitteln." As the Indian bird is rather dark and not pale-coloured, one cannot 

 say that the pale birds from South and East Persia, etc., form a transition, and no 

 name being available, I call it 



Burhinus oedicnemus astutus, subsp. nov. 

 Type from Fao, Persian Gulf, collected by Gumming, in the Tring Museum. 



