948 Synopsis of Indian Fringillidce. QNo. 156. 



7. P. (?) concolor, Jerdon, Madr. Journ. XI, 28 : perhaps Emberiza 

 olivacea, Tickell, /. A. S. II. 578, which specific name would have the 

 priority. (Non vidi.J According to Mr. Jerdon, this bird " does not ex- 

 actly agree with the characters of Pyrgita p. e. Passer] , having the bill 

 more turgid, and with the commissure slightly sinuated. The third 

 quill is shorter than the two first, and the inner toe is shorter than the 

 outer one ; its claws moreover are less curved. Colour uniform light 

 ash-brown above, still paler below (indeed almost white at chin and 

 ventj, and darkish on the quills and tail. Length six inches ; wing three 

 inches and three-eighths ; tail two and a quarter : tarse rather more than 

 seven-tenths ; bill at front four-tenths. Irides brown : bill brown above, 

 yellowish below ; legs flesh-coloured yellow." The only specimen obtained 

 by Mr. Jerdon was shot on the ground in an open plain, along with a 

 lot of the Coryphidea baghaira, p. 961 Hab. S. India. 



Gymnoris, Hodgson, n. g. Differs from Passer in having the beak 

 more elongated, slender, and Carduelis-like ; it being more slender than 

 in restricted Fringilla. 



G. flavicollis ; Fringilla flavicollis, Franklin, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 120; 

 referred to Ploceus by Col. Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 94, and with more 

 propriety to Pyrgita vel Passer by Mr. Jerdon.* India generally, though 



* Mr. Strickland remarks, in his recent letter tome, " I consider Fringilla flavicollis 

 to be a true Passer. It is one of the many instances, among the Fringillidce, of the va- 

 riable amount of development of the beak in the same genus. Its style of plumage 

 is completely that of Passer, and the yellow spot on the throat resembles that of 

 Fringilla petronia which I also consider a Passer. Fringilla Jiavicollis is certainly 

 not a Plocepasser, wanting the spurious quill found in all the Ploceincc ; still less is it 

 a Ploceus." To this may be added that its nest and eggs, as described in Mr. Jer- 

 don's catalogue, are quite those of Passer, the former being widely different from 

 that of Plocepasser. Mr. G. R. Gray, however, in his illustrated work on the genera 

 of birds, now in course of publication, includes this bird among the species of Plo- 

 ceus, following Col. Sykes, and he also refers to Ploceus the Fringilla erythrocephalus, 

 Gm., which is decidedly a Hyphantomis, G. R. Gray (v. Ploceus apud Swainson) ; 

 there is some considerable difference between the beaks of either of these species 

 and that of PL capensis, which deviates in the opposite manner from the type of 

 Ploceus: still I agree with Mr. Strickland in his appreciation of the systematic 

 value of various strongly marked modifications of the beak, observable in several 

 natural divisions among the Fringillidce., and indeed have expressed my opinion on 

 the subject in the course of the present paper. Had Mr. Hodgson not separated 

 Gymnoiis from Passer as above, I should scarcely have myself ventured upon do- 

 ing so. 



