34 



"On comparing it with JE. nipalensis it is found to differ, first, in the size of the bill. A 

 fine male JE. nipalensis has the bill at front, measured straight from the base of the feathers to 

 the point, - 9 inch; the finest specimen of JE. horsfieldi has the bill, similarly measured, only 

 0-76. Secondly, the red on the back is absolutely wanting; only in old males, on the sides of 

 the neck, just where the metallic feathers cease, there is a slight maroon tinge. Thirdly, the 

 rump is much paler yellow. Fourthly, the breast almost entirely wants the fiery orange tinge of 

 JE. nipalensis. 



" A wide tract of country, the whole of Kumaon and British Gurwal, in which, as far as 

 I know, neither species occurs (though JE. horsfieldi may straggle into British Gurwal and 

 JE. nipalensis into Kumaon), intervenes between these two species, supposed by Mr. Gould to be 

 identical, and by Dr. Jerdon to interbreed." 



The adult male from which my figure and descriptions are taken is in Mr. Swinhoe's 

 collection. It differs from a specimen in the British Museum in having the sides of the upper 

 back shaded with slate-colour and the wing-coverts and scapulars of a more dusky shade, these 

 parts being olive in the British-Museum specimen ; and it also differs in having the sides of the 

 chest washed with white. In both of these specimens there is a shade of red on the feathers 

 edging the metallic back of the neck ; and this appears also to have been the case with a speci- 

 men examined by Dr. Jerdon in the Museum of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta. This red shade 

 on some of the feathers of the upper back is, according to Messrs. Hume and Davison, entirely 

 absent in all their specimens. It may indicate age ; but I cannot agree with Dr. Jerdon that 

 it may probably interbreed with JE. nipalensis where they meet. Mr. Swinhoe's specimen, as 

 well as the specimen in the British Museum above referred to, is labelled "Nepal;" but I think 

 there need be little doubt that the locality there indicated is an error. 



It is a far rarer species than JE. nipalensis, and as yet we have no information regarding its 

 habits ; but from its natural affinities we may assume that, like the other JEthopygw, it frequents 

 mountainous districts of moderate elevation, and is to be found among the scattered clumps of 

 trees rather than in the dense forests. 



The lower figure in the illustration represents this bird. 



