952 Synopsis of Indian Frinyillidce. QNo. 156. 



brown. Length about five inches and three-quarters, of wing three 

 inches, and tail two and a quarter ; bill to forehead seven -sixteenths 

 of an inch, and tarse eleven-sixteenths. Himalaya, and I believe rather 

 uncommon. 



Propyrrhula, Hodgson, MS. This connecting form has the beak of 

 a true Pyrrhula, though not quite so short as in P. vulgaris and P. ery- 

 throcephalus ; while the plumage and colouring ally it to Corythus and 

 Erythrospiza, the former being, however, a degree less firm, wherein it 

 approximates the true Pyrrhula. It can only be arranged satisfactorily 

 as a separate division. 



P. subhemachalana ; Corythus subhemachalus, Hodgson, As. Res. XIX, 

 152. Himalaya. 



From Propyrrhula the genus Erythrospiza would conduct us by an 

 easy gradation to the Linnets and allied forms; but the remarkable 

 genus Corythus branches off from the present group, and leads us 

 direct to the very curious group of Crossbills, Loxia, of which L. cur- 

 virostra occurs in Afghanistan, and the following new species in Ne- 

 pal : — 



L. himalayensis, Hodgson, MS. Distinguished from L. curvirostraby 

 its very inferior size, being smaller than L. leucoptera ; the bill also is as 

 slender as in Carduelis, but deeper in conformity with the generic 

 characters of the Crossbills. Length about five inches and a half, of 

 wing three to three and a quarter, and tail two inches ; bill (in a 

 straight line) half an inch. Plumage as in L. curvirostra and L. pytio- 

 psittacus. 



Erythrospiza, Bonap. ; Hcemorrhous, Swainson. The birds of this 

 division are essentially Linnets with more or less tumid bills. 



1 . E. erythrina, (Pallas) : Coccothraustes rosea, apud Vieillot ; des- 

 cribed as " E. rosea P" in J. A. S. XI, 461. India generally, being 

 the only representative of the present great series of northern Finches 

 upon the plains of India. 



2. E. rodopepla ; Fringilla rodopepla, Vigors, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 23; 

 male figured in Gould's ' Century,' pi, XXXI, fig. 1 (the lower figure 

 in the plate). Bill less Pyrrhuline than in the preceding species, more 

 so than in the next. Length about six inches and three-quarters, 

 of wing three and one-eighth, and tail two and three-quarters. 

 Female rather less; her colour deep brown above, with paler lateral 



