1872.] W. T. Blanford— Zoology of SihJcim. 31 



Muscicapidce, Mend ides (especially Puticillince) , Pycnonotidas and Treronidce 

 is greatly increased. 



In the higher elevations of Sikkim, an entirely distinct fauna appears, 

 which is almost purely Palfearctic, although a few Malayan types are met 

 with. Arctomys, Lagomys, lloschus and Ovis appear amongst the mam- 

 mals, whilst nearly all the species found at lower elevations disappear. Of 

 the birds, scarcely any of the Picarice, and only a single species of the 

 Timalince are found at .12,000 feet ; the Pycnonotidce and Treronidce are 

 wanting, and the only families which gain in numbers are the Qmclidce, 

 Fringillidee, and Pliasianidce. Amongst the genera which are deficient at 

 the lower elevations, but common in the higher ranges, are Gypaetus 

 Troglodytes, Lophophanes, Accentor, Propasser, Nucifraga, Fregilus, 

 Ithagenis and Lerva. 



The principal object of my visit to the higher ranges of Sikkim was to 

 examine and collect this Palsearctic fauna, and the principal result has been to 

 ascertain that in these mountains two well marked sub-divisions of it are 

 found : one inhabits the damper southern slopes of the hills, while the other is 

 peculiar to the dry Tibetan climate. The latter we only entered in the 

 upper Lachen valley, close to Kongra Lama, and to it belong the peculiar 

 forms, Otocoris Elwesi, Leucosticte hcematopygia, Jifontif ring ilia ruficollis, 

 Fregilus pyrrliocorax, Cinclus sordidus and Accentor rubeculoides. 



A second object in my visit was to learn, so far as practicable, which of 

 the migratory Passerine birds, found in the Indian plains in the winter, 

 breed in the South-west Himalayas. My journey was undertaken rather 

 too late in the year to render it at all probable that I should find any birds 

 actually breeding, but still, as I was amongst the higher ranges at the 

 migrating season, I had some opportunity of seeing which birds were 

 previously there, and which appeared to arrive from the north. The result, 

 so far as I was enabled to make observations, is rather surprising ; for it 

 appears probable that scarcely any of the Indian migratory birds breed in 

 Sikkim, but, in some cases, species which visit India during the winter and 

 cross the Himalayas to breed, are represented by allied forms which rarely or 

 never leave the mountain ranges. Thus Chelidon urbica, which is a rare 

 visitant to the plains of India,* is represented by G. Nipalensis and 

 C Cashmiriensis ; Erythrosterna parva and E. leiocurahj E. maculata, which 

 is but rarely found in the plains, and by the various species of Sipliia ; 

 Pratincola Indicahj P.ferrea ; Buticilla rufioentris by P. frontalis, and 

 others, Calliope KamtschatJcensis by C. pectoralis ; JSlotacilla personata and il/". 

 Luzoniensis by JS1. Sodgsoni ; Carpodacus erythrmus by species of Propasser* 



* I have shot it in Caaatisgarh in the Central Provinces in April. Tickell, 

 J. A. S. B. 1855, p. 277, records it from Chota Nagpur and Moulmain ; Captain Irby 

 from Oudh ; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 338. 



