SYLVIA ALTHjEA. 



(HIMALAYAN WHITETHROAT.) 



Curruca cinerea (nee Bechst.), Jerdon, Madr. Journ. x. p. 268 (1839). 



Sylvia affinis (nee Blyth), id. B. of India, ii. p. 209 (1863). 



Sylvia affinis' 1 ., Hume, Str. Feathers, i. p. 198 (1873). 



Sylvia althaea, id. Str. Feathers, vii. p. 60 (1878). 



Sylvia althea, Hume, Seebohm, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. v. p. 20 (1881). 



Figura unica. 

 Pleske, Orn. Ross. pi. i. figs. 1, 2. 



Ad. pileo schistaceo, a colore dorsi Jiaud distinguendo : remige prima tectricum alulfe longiore, secunda 

 longitudine inter 6 m et 7 m seu 7 X fequali : ala, 2 - 6-2'8 poll. 



Adult Female (Karzil, July 9th). Upper parts dark bluish grey, the back slightly tinged with brown ; sides 

 of the head like the crown, bluish grey, slightly darker round and below the eye ; wings dark brown, 

 the quills with paler margins ; outer tail-feathers on each side white, except on the basal portion of the 

 inner web, which is blackish brown, rest of the tail blackish brown, except the two central rectrices, 

 which are lighter brown ; underparts white, the flanks washed with grey : bill dark horn, paler at the 

 base ; legs plumbeous brown ; iris light brown. Total length about 4 - 75 inches, culmen 0'6, wing 2 - 65, 

 tail 2*4, tarsus 085 ; second primary intermediate between the sixth and seventh. 



The sexes do not differ in plumage, but the male is generally rather larger in size than the female. The 

 autumn plumage differs in being bluer in tone of colour on the upper parts, and the flanks are washed 

 with a somewhat deeper tinge of grey than in the spring plumage. 



The Himalayan Whitethroat is found during the summer in Transcaspia, Turkestan, and 

 Kashmir, and winters in India, ranging in all probability as far south as Ceylon. 



According to Mr. Zarudny (Rech. Zool. Transcasp. p. 151) this Whitethroat is "tolerably 

 common in the eastern portion of the Kopepet-Dagh, and nests in the bush-covered defiles and 

 river-valleys, where it is to be met with as far as the upper part of the juniper zone. It also 

 breeds in the valleys of the Soumbar and Tchandyr. 



" It does not willingly leave the mountains for the lowlands, but I obtained one in 1886 

 near the Douchak Station, and met with it in 1886 and 1889 in the gardens of Askahad. 



"As I met with one of these birds on the upper course of the Atek not far from the mouth 

 of the Soumbar in 1886, its breeding-range probably embraces the bush-covered defiles of 

 Derequez and Keliat in Persia, and the capture of the specimen at Douchak confirms this." 



Mr. Pleske states that it breeds in Transcaspia, Turkestan, and Bokhara; Col. Biddulph 

 obtained it in Gilgit in May; and Mr. J. Scully, who met with it in the same locality, says 



I 



