MONTIFRINGILLA ALPICOLA. 



(EASTERN SNOW-FINCH.) 



Passer alpicola, Pall. Zoogr. Ross.-As. ii. p. 20 (1811). 



Fringilla nivalis, Nordm. in Demidoff's Voy. Russ. Merid. p. 187 (1840, nee Linn.). 



Montifringilla leucura, Bp. Corap. Rend. xli. p. 657 (1855). 



Montifringilla nivalis, Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. E. Ind. Co. Mus. ii. p. 491 (1856, nee Linn.). 



Fringilla {Montifringilla) alpicola (Pall.), Gray, Hand-1. of B. ii. p. 85. no. 7252 (1870). 



Fringilla nivalis, Severtzoff, Turk. Jevotnie, p. 64 (1873, nee Linn.). 



Montifringilla fringilloides, Dresser, Ibis, 1875, p. 242 (nee Boie). 



Montifringilla nivalis, Dresser, B. of Eur. iii. p. 617 (1876, partim). 



Montifringilla alpicola (Pall.), Blanf. E. Persia, ii. p. 248 (1876). 



Plectrofringilla apicola (Pall.), Bogd. Ptitsui Kavk. p. 67 (1879). 



Oreospiza alpicola (Pall.), Michailoffsky, in MS., fide Bogd. ut supra (1879). 



Gornyi Wjtirok, Russian. 



Figura unica. 

 Radde, Orn. Caucas. pi. viii. 



rf ad. ptil. (est. M. nivali similis, sed rostro longiore et graeiliore, pileo et nucha fusco-cinereis nee eano-oinereis 

 facile distinguendus. 



Adult Male in summer (Erzeroom). Resembles M. nivalis, but has a rather longer and more slender bill, 

 and the crown and nape instead of being ashy grey are brownish grey : bill and legs black ; iris brown. 

 Total length about 7 inches, culmen - 6, wing 4 - 5, tail 2 - 9, tarsus - 95. 



The female does not differ from the male in plumage. In the winter the black on the throat is obscured by 

 the white edges to the feathers, and the bill instead of being black is brown, the lower mandible being 

 dull yellow, darker at tbe tip, whereas in M. nivalis the whole bill is yellow with a dark tip. 



When, in 1876, I wrote the article on Montifringilla nivalis in the 'Birds of Europe' I was 

 inclined, owing to lack of material, to consider the present as a doubtful species, and united it 

 with M. nivalis ; but since then I have had an opportunity of examining a series of specimens, 

 and have convinced myself that the eastern and western forms are specifically separable, the 

 eastern form having the crown and nape dull brown instead of ashy grey, with a somewhat 

 larger bill, which is stated to be black and not yellow in the winter. 



The present species, which is the eastern form, inhabits elevated mountain-ranges of the 

 Caucasus, Persia, Afghanistan, and Turkestan, as far east as the Bei-schan range. Dr. Radde 

 says (Orn. Cauc. p. 171) that in the Caucasus it inhabits the higher portions of the mountains, 

 being seldom found at any season below the boundary of tree-growth, and never, even during the 

 severest winters, descends into the valleys. In the treeless High Armenia it descends lower than 



2d 



