76 SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



Sylvia curruca (nee Linn.) ; Severtz. Turkest. Jevotn. p. 65 (1873) ; Hume & Henders. Lahore to Yark. 

 p. 221 (1873) ; Blanf. East. Persia, ii. p. 175 (1876) ; Prjev. in Rowley's Orn. Misc. ii. p. 170 



(1877). 



No. 80. Indus Valley, south of Chimray, September 13, 1873. — Length 5-65 inches, wing 2*6, 

 tail 2*455 tarsus 0*78; bill from front 0*3, from gape 0-58. Iris light brown; bill 

 horny black ; feet horny blackish. 



No. 146, imm. Urumbu, Jhelum Valley, July 24, 1873. 



No. 273, juv. Kangan, August 7, 1873. 



No. 295. Gaganghir, August 9, 1873. 



Nos. 459, 465. Kargil, August 19, 1873. 



No. 476. Shargol, August 20, 1873. 



Nos. 562, 576. Leh, August 28, 1873. 



No. 669, juv. Leh, September 10, 1873. 



As mentioned below. Dr. Henderson's specimen from Khushtagh belongs to this species, 

 and therefore the one shot by Dr. Scully at the same place on the 8th of August may also 

 have been an example of this Warbler, 



152. Sylvia minuscula. 



Sylvia curruca (nee Gm.) ; Scully, Str. F. iv. p. 150 (1876). 



Sylvia minuscula, Hume; Seebohm, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. v. p. 20, pi. 1 (1881) ; C. Swinh. Ibis, 1882, 

 p. 109; Severtz. Ibis, 1883, p. ^1 -, Scully, J. A. S. Beng. Ivi. p. 80 (1887); Gates, Faun. Brit. Ind., 

 Birds, i. p. 398 (1889) ; Sharpe, Trans. Linn. Soc. (2) Zool. v. pt. 3, p. 71 (1889). 



No. 969. Karghalik, November 6, 1873. 

 No. 1094. Yangihissar, December 1, 1873. 

 Nos. 1680, 1682. Ighiz Yar, May 18, 1874. 

 No. 1814. Karghalik, May 30, 1874. 

 Nos. 1840, 1843. Kugiar, June 1, 1874. 

 Nos. 1848-49. Kugiar, June 2, 1874. 



The specimens killed in winter differ little from those obtained in summer, but have 

 rather more brown on the head, which is scarcely different in colour from the back. 



Dr. Stoliczka's 'Diary' contains a note that this Warbler was common near Yangihissar in 

 December, and on the 18th of May he found a nest in a rose-bush near Ighiz Yar. On the 

 31st of May he writes : — '' BesJiterek. This Warbler is very common and breeding. One nest 

 had one, and another three fresh eggs : one had two half -incubated eggs. The nest is in a 

 small bush about ten inches or a foot above the ground, composed entirely of grass, regularly 

 cup-shaped, round, about 1\ inch deep and If in diameter. Outside it consists of mode- 

 rately coarse grass ; inside of finer grass with a little grass-seed film interwoven." 



An examination of the specimen procured by Dr. Scully at Posgam in October, and 

 identified by him as Sylvia curruca, proves that it is really S. minuscula. Whether the other 

 specimens from Khushtagh and Sughuchaw were also of this species I cannot say. Dr. Hen- 

 derson's specimens in the Hume Collection are also mixed up, one from Oi-tograk being 

 >S^. minuscula, and another from Khushtagh being S. affinis. 



Dr. Scully states that this Whitethroat arrives in the plains of Kashgharia about April, 

 and migrates southwards towards the end of October. It breeds in May and June. 



