AYES. 33 



No. 698, 2 . Camp Tsiiltak, north of Chang-la, September 15, 1873. 



No. 711, ^ juv. Tanksi, September 16, 1873. 



Nos. 802-806, ? . Karatagh Lake, October 10, 1873. 



No. 807, S . Upper Karakasb Valley, October 10, 1873 (received from J. Biddulph). 



Nos. 1426-1436, d. Tarbashi, March 28, 1874. 



I extract the following note from my ^ Catalogue,' founded in great part on the specimens 

 collected by the present Expedition : — " The specimen described is a female bird obtained by 

 Mr. "W. T. Blanford in the Kangra Lama Pass, Sikhim, on October 5, 1870. Two male speci- 

 mens procured on the same date by Mr. H. J. Elwes have more rosy margins to the feathers of 

 the rump, but are in general respects similar to the female described. Both are beginning to 

 moult ; and instead of the uniform ashy head, they have tawny-buff feathers with black bases, 

 foreshadowing the appearance o{ the first winter plumage of the young. This we also know 

 from the series collected in October by Dr. Stoliczka during the second Yarkand Expedition. 

 The whole upper surface is sandy brown, with darker brown centres to the feathers of the 

 mantle and back, the lower back having rosy ends to the feathers; wings and tail as in 

 the adult bird, but all the feathers obscured by sandy-bufip margins ; under surface 

 of body plain sandy buff, more ashy on the throat and breast. Some of the specimens 

 have a faint rosy tinge on the lesser and median wing-coverts ; in others, mostly females, 

 this is absent or replaced by saffron-yellow, the rosy colour of the lower back being 

 absent. 



" The late Dr. Severtzoff recognized three forms of M. brandti, consisting of the typical 

 species, M. hcematopygia^ and M\ pamirensis; and Mr. Seebohm has kindly lent me the 

 specimens on which these diflPerences were founded, including the types of M. pamirensis. 

 M. brandti is said to differ from the last-named species in having no red margins to the 

 rump-feathers, and only a few red-marked feathers on the rump, the lesser wing-coverts 

 being rosy in the male and huffy rufous in the female. The type of the latter is quite 

 a young bird, which accounts for the absence of rosy colour. The true M, hcematopygia 

 is said by Severtzoff to resemble M. brandti, but has the whole of the rump rosy, with 

 the tips of the feathers crimson ; the lesser wing-coverts ashy, with no rosy on the margin. 



a There seems to me to be nothing in these difiPerences of plumage beyond what can be 

 reasonably accounted for by age. In a large series, such as I have examined (over 50 skins), 

 it is evident that very little stress can be placed on the amount of rose-colour on the rump. 

 In young birds it is apparently feebly developed, and is sometimes absent altogether in winter 

 plumage. 



"The winter plumage of the adults differs from the summer plumage in being altogether 

 more tawny buff, and the edges of the feathers becoming shed, the head, and gradually the 

 back, get black ; curiously enough, the red edgings to the wing-coverts are never seen in 

 the black-headed stage, and hence Dr. Severtzoff contends that this form, the true if. hcB- 

 matopygia, is specifically distinct from M. brandti and M. pamirensis. The red margins to the 

 wing-coverts are, however, so much more plain in the winter plumage, that I believe them to 

 be characteristic of that season, being entirely lost by abrasion as the summer plumage is 

 put on." 



Colonel Biddulph's localities for the present species w^ere Camp Tsiiltak, Sept. 15, 1873, 

 and Kiifelang on the 12th of June, 1874. He writes : — " I first met with this crossing the 

 Sakti Pass. It w^as in large flocks in October in the lower part of the Karakash valley at 

 about 12,000-13,000 feet. We saw^ it again on our way to Wakhan in large flocks near Chehil 



p 



