120 



it affects the tamarisk- and saxaul-thickets." On the 15th May he saw near Kara-Bend young 

 birds which had not left the nest many days. 



Parus boJcharensis, var. intermedins, which I take to be P. cinereus, is chiefly distinguishable, 

 he adds, " by a white nuchal patch tinged with bright yellow. The dorsal feathers are ashy 

 grey with a tinge of yellowish green, and the breast is white marked distinctly with yellow 

 on the flanks. During the heat of the summer the plumage gets considerably faded, and these 

 differences become so far effaced as to render the varieties most difficult to separate. 



"To this species are referable the Titmice which I obtained in 1884 in the valleys of the 

 Karguy-sou, Firouse, and Gujarmaou. 



" It inhabits exclusively the mountains and forests which rise from the banks of the Soumbar 

 and Tchandyr. No difference is observable in the habits and note of these two forms." 



Mr. Blanford did not meet with Parus bolcharensis in Persia; but Col. Swinhoe obtained 

 specimens in Afghanistan, at Kandahar, and Khojak, and Severtzoff in Turkestan. Mr. Pleske 

 also received specimens (Rev. Turk. Ornis, p. 13) from Iskander-kul, Kschtut, and Samarcand. 

 Col. Prjevalsky also records this species from Dzungaria, where it was met with in the poplar- 

 and willow-groves on the Urungu and Bulugan Rivers. In its habits, he remarks, it agrees closely 

 with the Great Titmouse, but its note is louder. 



In habits the present species is said not to differ from Parus cinereus, and like that species 

 nests in holes in trees. Mr. Zarudny remarks {I. c.) that he believes it breeds twice in the year, 

 as on the 20th May he found a nest near Dort-Koyou, in Transcaspia, and shot both the birds, 

 and in the female he found an egg which would have been deposited within two days. The nest 

 was in a hole in a saxaul bush, in a small thicket of these bushes growing on the top of a sand 

 hillock. The hole was close to the root of the bush, and the nest consisted of a lot of rotten 

 wood and a few pheasant's feathers. 



Mr. Zarudny does not describe the egg, which doubtless resembles that of Parus cinereus, 

 but is larger. 



The present species is always distinguishable from Parus cinereus in being larger, much 

 paler in colour, and in having the white on the sides of the head and neck extending over a 

 much larger area, and usually extending down the sides of the neck to the breast, separating the 

 black on the throat from that on the sides of the nape. In one specimen, however, in my 

 collection from Ferghana a narrow line of black extends across the sides of lower neck, thus 

 connecting the black on the throat with that on the sides of the nape, but in all the rest it is 

 absent. The specimens I have figured show the difference between the two species very clearly. 



The specimen figured and described is in my own collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined, besides the series in the British 

 Museum, the following specimens : — 



E Mm. II. P. Dresser. 



a, ? ad. Tedgend, Transcaspia, March 28th [Dr. G. Radde). b, <$ . Ferghana, December 25th; c, g . Nukus 

 on the Oxus, August 31st ; d, $ . Jany-Darja, October 22nd ; e, $ . Mountains on Ugani River, 

 E.Turkestan, January 28th, 1875 [Severtzoff). f,g,$. Urungu River, Dzungaria, April [Prjevalsky). 



E Mus. H. B. Tristram, 

 a, £. Oxus River, August 16th, 1880 [Severtzoff). b, $ . Urungu Kiver, Dzungaria [Prjevalsky). 



