CINCLUS CASHMIBIENSIS. 



(WHITE-BREASTED ASIATIC DIPPER.) 



1 Cinclus aguaticus, var. albiventris, Hempr. & Ehr. Symb. Phys., Aves, fol. bb (1828). 



Cinclus aguaticus, Menetries, Cat. rais. p. 29 (1832, nee Bechst.). 



Eydrobata cinclus, Adams, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 489. 



Cinclus cashmeriensis, Gould, P. Z. S. 1859, p. 494. 



Hydrobata cashmeriensis (Gould), Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 507 (1862). 



Cinclus aguaticus, var. cashmeriensis, Blanford, E. Persia, ii. p. 212 (1876). 



Cinclus kashmiriensis (Gould), Oates, Faun. Brit. India, Birds, ii. p. 162 (1890). 



Figura nulla. 



C. melanogastri similis, sed pallidior : capite, nucha et collo postico usque ad regionem interscapularem fuscis : 

 abdomine sordidiore et magis fusco : hypochemdriis nee schistaceo-griseis. 



Adult Male (Schamchoi*, Transcaspia) . Resembles Cinclus melanog aster, but the upper parts are paler, the 

 brown extends down well on to the interscapulary region, the dark portion of the underparts is 

 duller and browner in tinge, and the flanks lack the clear slate-grey coloration. Total length about 

 6*7 inches, culmen - 8, wing 3 - 62, tail 1"9, tarsus 11. 



Adult Female. Resembles the male. 



The present species I cannot but consider as a local form of Cinclus melanogaster, differing 

 chiefly in having the brown on the upper parts extending much further down the back, and 

 having the upper parts generally much paler in tinge of colour. 



It inhabits Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Persia, Afghanistan, and Kashmir, ranging eastward 

 as far as Chinese Mongolia. When in 1873 I wrote the article on Cinclus albicollis in the ' Birds 

 of Europe ' I had not had an opportunity of examining specimens from Asia Minor, which I have 

 since done, and have found them to be referable to the present form, and not to C. albicollis, and 

 to be identical with examples from the Caucasus and Persia. 



The present form of Dipper is, according to Mr. C. G. Danford (Ibis, 1878, p. 12), common 

 on the upper waters of the Cydnus, near Zebil, in Asia Minor. He met with one nest there 

 hardly completed, which was placed in an exposed situation on the face of a large boulder, and 

 was as much domed as any nest of C. aguaticus. In the Caucasus, Lorenz states (Orn. Faun. 

 Cauc. p. 34), "I found this Dipper breeding high up in the mountains in the Eschkakon ravine. 

 It is not uncommon in the ravines near Kislovodsk, but becomes more numerous in the autumn 

 and winter, and it is not rare on the Podkumok in the winter. I met with it in the Kuban steppe 

 in November at the stanitzas Labinskaja and Sassovskaja on the Laba, but it was not common." 



