22 SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



Genus PYRRHOCORAX. 



43. Ptrrhocokax pyrrhocohax. 



Corvus pyrrhocorax, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 158 (1766). 



Pyrrhocorax alpinus, V. ; Hume & Henders. Lahore to Yark. p. 249 (1873) ; Severtz. Turkest. Jevotn. 



p. 64 (1873); Dresser, Ibis, 1875, p. 237; Blanf. Geol. & Zool. E. Persia, ii. p. 263 (1876); 



Prjev. in Rowley's Orn. Misc. ii. p. 285 (1877) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 148 (1877) ; 



Biddulph, Ibis, 1881, p. 78; Scully, t. c. p. 573; Homeyer & Tancre, MT. orn. Ver. Wien, 1883, 



p. 88 ; Zarudn. Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou, 1885, p. 59; Badde, Ornis, iii. p. 474 (1887) ; Gates, Faun. 



Brit. Ind., Birds, i. p. 44 (1889). 



No. 525, ? . N.E. of Lamaguru ob the road to the Indus. — Length 15 inches, wing 10*25, 



tail 6'55 tarsus 1*5. Iris dark brown; bill pale fleshy horny, darkest towards tip; 



feet and toes blackish brown. A solitary specimen. 



This is the individual which Stoliczka thought might belong to an undescribed 



species. As Mr. Hume has rightly conjectured, it is only the young of P. alpinus 



(vel pyrrhocorax). 

 No. 531. Saspiil on the Indus, August 25, 1873.— Length 17 inches, wing lO'G, tail 7*5, 



tarsus 1*7. Iris brown ; bill yellow ; feet coral-red. 

 No. 852. North of Shahidiila, Karakash, October 22, 1873. " Kara-shachshag." 

 No. 1419. Sasstekke, February 23, 1874. 



Colonel Biddulph's note runs : — " Eound both in Himalayas, Karakorum (I did not go to 

 the Thian Shan), and the Pamir, as well as the mountains leading to it. As a rule they were 

 always found higher up than the Eed-billed Choughs ; except at the Pamir, they were less 

 common than these latter, but at Aktash (12,600 feet) they were yery numerous (May, 1874)." 



Dr. Stoliczka found it breeding near Sasstekke on the 16th of May. 



Genus P O D O C E S. 

 44. PoDOCES BiDDULPHi. (Plate IV.) 



Podoces biddulphi, Hume, Str. F. ii. pp. 503, 529 (1874) j Skarpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 151 (1877). 



Noo 1258, 6 . Maralbashi, January 1874. 



The typical specimen of P. hiddulphi was a female, procured at Maralbashi by 

 Colonel Biddulph on the 10th of January, and it is now in the British Museum. 

 No. 1730. Yarkand, May 15-20, 1874. " Bought aliye in bazaar." 



This is a young bird, and it has a much shorter bill than the adults, and both the 

 bill and the legs are horny brown, instead of being black. The wings and the tail 

 are like those of the adult, but there is a broader black mark along the centre of the 

 middle tail-feather. The black facial markings are only just commencing to show, 

 and the black head is obscured by broad sandy buff tips to the feathers. 

 Colonel Biddulph writes : — '^ I Urst saw these beyond Yengi-awat, on the road to Maral- 

 bashi. They were generally in pairs or singly on the road, pecking at horse-dung. The 

 country was rather broken and covered with bushes. When alarmed, they fly up and perch 

 on the topmost twigs of the bush. I heard no cry, but they are very wild and wary : if 

 followed they go on from bush to bush, with short flights, always keeping out of shot. In 

 the jungle north of Maralbashi I saw them in largish flocks of from ten to twelve, and when 

 in flocks they did not appear quite so wary. The flight is heavy, flapping, undulating, some- 

 thing like that of a Woodpecker; it is not in the slightest degree like that of the Choughs." 



