1872.] W. T. Blanford— Zoology of Sikhn. 61 



but lie adds that there are several of his Indian types unrepresented by 

 Emopean specimens. Under these circumstances I cannot help thinking it 

 highly probable that there are really two distinct races, one found in Europe 

 and Western Asia, the other in Eastern Asia, and that the two meet in 

 India, and in the countries due North of India in which they interbreed. 

 We know that India is the limit of Eastern and Western forms in several 

 migratory birds, as Motacilla Luzoniensis and M. alba ;* Erytlirostema parva 

 and E. leticura, &c, and the same may very possibly be the case with the 

 tree pipits. Chinese examples would go far to settle this question. If they 

 are identical with the species from Bengal, whilst birds from Western India 

 are, as we are assured, undistinguishable from European examples, it will be 

 fan to look upon intermediate forms as hybrids. 



I saw no tree pipits in Eastern or Northern Sikkim until about the 

 20th September, then they appeared in considerable numbers. Two 

 specimens which I have preserved are more olive above and more fulvous 

 below than those usually shot in the plains of India. They have broad 

 fulvous edges to the wing coverts and green margins to the quills, whilst 

 these are whitish in birds from Central India. 



Comparing my specimens with the figure of Anihus arboreus in Gould's 

 Birds of Europe, the bdl in the former appears decidedly larger. 



601 AjSTHTTS stbiolatus, Blyth. — Common in all the northern parts 

 of Sikkim. I found it in clearings at a little below 7,000 feet early in 

 September, and at Phalung above 15,000 in the beginning of October. 



605 A. eosaceus, Hodgs. — It is, I believe, pretty generally admitted that 

 this bird is distinct from (A. Cecilii, Sav. (= A. cervmus, Pall.). Mr. Hume 

 is doubtful on the subject (Ibis 1871, p. 35), but Mr. Tristram (ib. p. 233,) 

 is decidedly of opinion that it is a different race, and he further separates as 

 A. japonicus, Temm. and Schl., the race found in China, Eastern Siberia,f &e. 



Whether the latter be not A. rosaceus, Hodgs., in winter plumage 

 remains to be determined. I cannot believe that the birds with olive backs 

 and yellow axillaries which abound in Sikkim are represented by any stage 

 of plumage of A. Cecilii ; at least such specimens as I have seen are 

 certainly different. Specimens obtained by Major Godwin- Austen on the 

 Khasi Hills were precisely like mine from Sikkim. 



I found Anihus rosaceus common on the Chola range in August, and in 

 the valleys of Northern Sikkim, from 12,000 to 15,000 feet. It doubtless 

 breeds at these elevations, and it is, I believe, a constant resident in the 

 Himalayas, rarely or never descending to the plains. I presume Mr. 



* Can II. dahhunensisbe a hybrid race between these two. Some specimens from 

 Western India have no more white on the wings than the European bird. 



t Mr. G. R. Gray does the same in his Hand list, but marks A japonicus as 

 doubtful. 



