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CINCLUS ASIATICUS, Swaim. 



Asiatic Water-Ouzel. 



Cinclus Asiaticus, Swains. Faun. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 174. 



Palhsii, Temm. Man. d'Orn., torn. i. p. 177.— Gould, Cent, of Birds, pi. xxiv.— Gray, Cat. of Spec, and 



Draw, of Mamm. and Birds pres. to Brit. Mus. by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., p. 78. 



tenuirostris, Gould, MSS .— Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 252, Cinclus, sp. 5. 



asiaticus, Adams in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xxvii. p. 180. 



maculatus, Hodgs. in Gray's Zool. Misc. 1844, p. 83, young. 



Hydrobata Asiatica, Gray and Mitch., Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 215, Hydrobata, sp. 4— Blyth, Cat. of Birds in 



Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 158.— Horsf. and Moore, Cat. of Birds in Mus. East Ind. Comp., vol. i. 



p. 185. 



More than a quarter of a century has now elapsed since the subject of the present memoir occupied my 

 attention while engaged upon my first work, 'A Century of Birds from the Himalayan Mountains.' Therein 

 I published a figure of the bird under the specific appellation of Palhsii, a term I was induced to adopt in 

 consequence of the specimen from which my figure was taken accurately agreeing with the description given 

 by M. Temminck in the first volume of his 'Manuel d'Ornithologie,' published in 1820, where he says: — 

 'Cinclus Palhsii: formes de notre cincle ; tout le plumage, sans exception, d'une seule nuance brune, 

 couleur de chocolat," — a description answering so precisely to that of the present bird that no more 

 appropriate terms could have been selected. Subsequently, in the third volume of the ' Manuel,' published 

 fifteen years later (1835), he modified this description as follows : — 



" Cinclus Pallasii (Mihi). — Un peu plus grand que le Cincle plongeur, mais les formes totales exacte- 

 ment memes. Toutes les parties, tant inferieures que superieures, toute la tete et le cou d'une seule 

 nuance brune enfumee, ou couleur de suie ; les seules plumes du dos liserees de noir; les ailes et la queue 

 d'un noir grisatre, mais les couvertures des ailes liserees de couleur de suie ; douze pennes a la queue ; iris 

 bleu, bee noir, pieds gris. Longueur, huit pouces. Les deux sexes." 



Now the question is, did M. Temminck take his description from a specimen said to have been brought 

 by Pallas from the Crimea, or from an Indian example ? If from an Indian bird, then the term Pallasi 

 should be retained for the present species, and not applied to the bird inhabiting Japan ; ornithologists, 

 however, generally incline to consider the Japanese bird to be the one to which the term Pallasi should be 

 applied, and I yield to their opinion, to prevent any further confusion. 



The Cinclus Asiaticus enjoys a wide range of habitat, extending over the southern slopes of the great 

 Himalayan range of mountains from Bhotan on the east to Afghanistan on the west. Specimens from the 

 latter country were sent to the Hon. East India Company's Museum by Mr. Griffiths, and others were 

 forwarded by Mr. Pemberton from Bhotan. I have never seen examples from any part of the Peninsula of 

 India. It is said to frequent rocky glens and mountain streams, and to offer in its habits and economy a 

 great resemblance to those of our well-known Cinclus aquaticus. Its food consists of aquatic insects and 

 their larvae, the fry and ova of fishes, &c, which it takes beneath the water. 



The colouring of the young birds for the first two or three months after their leaving the nest offers a 

 considerable contrast to that of the adults, in which a uniform style of colouring pervades the entire body 

 of both sexes. As I have figured this youthful state, a glance at the accompanying plate will at once convey 

 a correct idea of the appearance the bird presents at this age. In this speckled style of plumage it very 

 closely resembles many members of the Saxicolince, to which it also offers an alliance in the number 

 and colouring of its eggs ; I do not, however, assert that it is with this group of birds that it ought to be 

 associated ; at the same time I cannot fail to perceive that it is perhaps more nearly allied to that group 

 than to anv other. 



ml 



The adults of both sexes have the upper and under surface uniform light chocolate-brown ; or if there be 

 any exception to the uniformity, it occurs in some of the feathers of the back appearing in certain lights to 

 be faintly margined with dark brown ; the wings and tail also are of a rather darker or purer brown ; above 

 and below the eye a small crescent-shaped mark of white ; bill olive black ; legs and feet olive brown, except 

 in front, where they incline to white. 



The young are clothed in greyish brown, with an irregular spot of white near the tip of each feather; the 

 two colours so much intermingled on the under surface as to give that part a mottled appearance, while 

 that of the upper surface has a more spotted character ; down the chin a stripe of white ; wing-feathers 

 narrowly margined with white, showing most conspicuously at the tips ; tail brown. 



The plate represents a male, a female, and a young bird, about the natural size. 





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