AVES. 35 



a Fincli to-day, sometMng like the Eosy Bullfinch, but larger, and it has not the deep 

 tone of the latter, but the comparatively loud chirp of a Fringilla. There was a flock of 

 them about the fort : perhaps they are permanent inhabitants here." 



Colonel Biddulph writes : — ''We met with this only at Panjah in Wakhan, in April — 

 and there we only saw one large flock, which used to come every morning and settle on some 

 bare ground near our camp, until we had shot most of them. The elevation of the place at 

 which we shot them was 9000 feet." 



Genus RHODOSPIZA. 



67. Ehodospiza obsoleta. 



Fringilla obsoleta, Licht. in Eversm. Reis. Anbang, p. 132 (1823). 



Erythrospiza obsoleta (Licht.) ; Severtz. Turkest. Jevotn. p. 64 (1873) ; Dresser, Ibis, 1875, p. 247 ; 



Scully, Str. F. iv. p. 168 (1876) ; Blanf. East. Persia, ii. p. 352, pi. xvii. (1876) ; Prjev. in Rowley^s 



Orn. Misc. ii. p. 303 (1877) ; C. Swinh. Ibis, 1882, p. 114; Menzb. Ibis, 1885, p. 353; Scully, 



J. A. S. Beng. Ivi. p. 84 (1887). 

 Rhodospiza obsoleta, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xii. p. 282 (1888) ; id. Trans. Linn. Soc. (2) Zool. v. 



p. 80 (1889) . 



No. 890, ad. Sanju, October 28, 1873. — Iris coffee-brown ; bill black, paler about the 

 middle; feet liorny brown. Length 6*3 inches, wing 3-55, tail 2*7, tarsus 0*68;, 

 expanse 10*6 ; bill from forehead 0*4, from gape 0*55 ; length of foot 1-25. 



No. 922, ad. Sanju, October 29, 1873. 



Nos. 932, 937, ad. Sanju, October 30, 1873. 



Nos. 940, 944, ad. Sanju, October 31, 1873. 



No. 934, ad. Oi-tograk, November 3, 1873. 



Nos. 975-977, ad. Karghalik, November 6, 1873. 



Nos. 990, 992, ad. Yarkand, November 10, 1873. 



No. 1056, ad. Yarkand, November 24, 1873. 



No. 1380, ad. Pyzabad, E. of Kashghar, March 3, 1874. 



No. 1737, ad. Yarkand, May 20, 1874. 



Nos. 792, 794, ad. Yarkand, May 26, 1874. 



Nos. 1803, 1804, ad. Karghalik, May 29, 1874. 



Nx)s. 1806, 1807, ad. Karghalik, May 29, 1874. 



Nos. 1822, 1825, 1827, 1828, ad. Karghalik, May 30, 1874. 



Colonel Biddulph sends the following note :—'' We first met with this at Sanju in 

 November, and on the march thence to Yarkand. During the winter it was not obtained in 

 Kashghar, but we found it very common throughout the plains of Yarkand, and right up to 

 the foot of the hills daring May and June. 



" This bird has a peculiar piping note and the people are very fond of keeping it in 

 cages. We never saw it high up in the hills. It is a true Pinch, rarely seen on the 

 ground, never in flocks, but always in pairs." 



Dr. Scully found this species breeding in May and June. He writes : — " Numerous in 

 the plains of Kashgharia, where it is a permanent resident. This species was common at 

 Kashghar in winter, where it frequents the hedges, often in company with the Sparrow 

 (Fasser montanus). Near Yarkand in summer it was found about trees, in orchards, and in 

 clumps of poplars. It has a very sweet song, and feeds entirely on seeds. The Turki name 

 for the species is Tumoclmky 



p2 



