397 



localities returning. It was usually found near water at from 12,000 to about 15,000 feet. 

 Where you cease to find moss and running water it is no longer seen ; and in the higher regions 

 it is, so to say, replaced by Montifringilla hcematopygia. Going up every pass -it was met with 

 to a certain height, where it disappeared ; going down the other side of the pass it was again 

 met with at the same elevation." He also remarks that it varies considerably in size. Dr. Jerdon 

 (B. of India, ii. p. 429) says that the present species is an inhabitant of the cold regions of 

 Northern Asia, in winter descending to the plains, and coming south. It has been found in 

 Nepal, Kumaon, and other parts of the Himalayas. I have examined specimens from India, 

 and also one from Thibet, in the British Museum, all of which are labelled Otocorys longirostris ; 

 but though they differ somewhat from Persian and Palestine examples, I cannot do otherwise than 

 refer them to the present species. They are somewhat larger in size, and have larger and stouter 

 bills than the general run of specimens of Otocorys penicillata from Persia, Palestine, and Syria. 

 I do not find that, as represented in Moore's plate, P. Z. S. 1855 (pi. Ill), the sides of the neck 

 are white (as in O. alpestris); but the black appears to be continuous in all the specimens, except 

 that in those in winter plumage the feathers on the sides of the neck have light tips, thus making 

 the black portion of the breast and neck irregular. Judging from specimens in Mr. Swinhoe's 

 collection, I am greatly inclined to doubt the occurrence of true 0. penicillata in South-eastern 

 Siberia or China. Mr. Swinhoe's specimen from Tientsin, recorded by him (P. Z. S. 1862, p. 318) 

 under the name of 0. penicillata, is certainly not this species, but resembles the pale form of 

 the Shore-Lark from Southern Russia, usually labelled by Russian collectors Otocorys albigula, 

 except that it has a larger bill, and bears about the same relation to that form that 0. longirostris 

 does to the present species. 



I have been unable to find any original description by Brandt of Alauda albigula ; and it 

 appears that it can only be a MS. name of that author. Otocorys albigula, Bp. (I. c), is certainly 

 not the pale desert species usually referred to by the Russian authors under that name, but 

 (from his diagnosis, "fusca : colli lateribus pectoreque ex toto nigris : gula alba") must be Otocorys 

 penicillata. If, as appears to be the case, Bonaparte was the first to publish the name of 

 0. albigula, the pale desert form is still unnamed, and I would propose for it the name of 

 Otocorys brandti. 



This species is smaller and very much paler than Otocorys alpestris, has the black pectoral 

 shield narrower, the underparts whiter, and no trace of yellow in the white colour of the head 

 and throat. It has the black on the head and breast distributed as in Otocorys alpestris ; but, as 

 before stated, the pectoral shield is narrower ; the sides of the neck are not continuously black 

 as in 0. penicillata, but the black patch through the eye is divided from the black pectoral 

 shield by a tolerably broad white space ; the entire back, nape, and hind crown are pale sandy 

 isabelline, with a greyish tinge, some of the feathers having indistinct darker centres; wings 

 very much paler than in 0. alpestris, the primaries narrowly and the secondaries broadly mar- 

 gined and tipped with white ; central rectrices dull pale hair-brown, with greyish white margins ; 

 remaining rectrices as in 0. alpestris ; lower part of the breast, abdomen, under tail-coverts, and 

 under wing-coverts pure white; flanks slightly washed with pale rufous isabelline; culmen 0-52, 

 wing 4-4, tail 3-3, tarsus 0'82, hind toe with claw 0-6, hind claw 0*32. 



The specimen described, my type of this species, is a male, evidently in full breeding- 



