PARUS BOKHARENSIS. 



(BOKHARAN GREY TITMOUSE.) 



Parus bokharensis, Licht. in Eversm. Reise n. Buchara, p. 131 (1823). 

 Parus bochariensis, Licht., Severtzoff, J. f. Orn. 1873, p. 346. 

 Parus boccharensis, Licht., Gadow, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. viii. p. 16 (1883). 

 Parus bocharensis typicus, Zarudny, Bull. Soc. Mosc. iii. p. 789 (1890). 

 1. Parus bocharensis, var. intermedius, Zarudny, ut supra (1890). 



Figura nulla. 



Ad. P. cinereo similis, sed major, colli lateribus albis nee nigris et dorso conspicue pallidiore, facile 

 distinguendus. 



Adult Male (Dzungaria) . Upper parts pale blue-grey, much paler than in P. cinereus ; crown and sides of 

 the nape glossy black; centre of the nape white; quills blackish, on the basal portion margined with 

 blue-grey, and on the terminal portion with white; secondaries and larger wing-coverts broadly 

 margined with greyish white ; central tail-feathers blue-grey, the outermost rectrix white, margined with 

 blackish on the inner web, the next with the outer web white and the inner web blackish tipped with 

 white, the remaining tail-feathers blackish ; underparts white, with a broad central black band extending 

 along the breast and abdomen, and the chin and throat deep black : beak black ; legs plumbeous ; iris 

 dark brown. Total length about 6"7 inches, culmen 055, wing 3, tail 3"35, tarsus O8o. 



Adult Female (Tedgend). Does not differ from the male in plumage, but is a trifle smaller in size. 



This pale large form of Parus cinereus inhabits Transcaspia, Afghanistan, and Turkestan. 

 Messrs. Badde and Walter, who found it by no means uncommon in Transcaspia, remark that 

 they met with it only on the lowlands, whereas P. cinereus was met with exclusively in the 

 mountains. Parus bokharensis, they say, " inhabits chiefly the dense tamarisk-thickets close to 

 the water, but was also met with in the high sand by the Perewalnaja station, and in the salt- 

 lagoons of Molla-kary. On the 1st April we observed it building its nest at Tedgend, and we 

 could see how often the nests were endangered by the floods. The nest was in a rotten poplar 

 (Poptdus diver si folia), and was close to the surface of the rising water. Clearly there were not 

 many suitable nesting-places here, for the birds had been busy elevating their nest by bringing 

 together a mass of tamarisk twigs and leaves, and had in fact raised it eighteen inches." On the 

 Murghab many nests were found in old nest-holes of Gecinus flavirostris, and on the 12th April 

 they all contained young. The nest resembles that of the Coal Titmouse, and is composed 

 of fine tamarisk twigs together with the wool of various animals. Zarudny remarks (Bull. Soc. 

 Mosc. iii. p. 789) that in Transcaspia two forms occur, viz. — Parus bocharensis typicus, with 

 the characteristics attributed by many authors to P. bocharensis, Licht., and Parus bocharensis, 

 var. intermedius. The former of these, he says, is " tolerably common in the woods along the 

 Tedgend, and usually in those skirting the central part of the Murghab. It is not rare in the 

 gardens of the Merv oasis, and even breeds in the sands skirting the Alikhanoff canal, where 



