1854.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 213 



(somewhat smaller and shorter-billed than H. bubtjlcus, but barely separ- 

 able from the latter) ; Ciconia nigra, juv. ; Cygnus musicus ; and Pha- 

 laceocoeax pygm^us from Algiers, sent as Ph. africanus, but perfectly 

 identical with the common small Cormorant of India. Many other fine 

 specimens are sent, but of species with which we were previously well 

 supplied. 



Of reptiles, Rana esculenta, Salamandea maculosa, Laurenti, and 

 Lissoteiton palmatus, (Daud., nee L. palmifes.) 



Northern Snowfleck (Plectrophanes), — from which, indeed, it hardly differs 

 more than Emberiza pyrrhuloides, Pallas, does from Emb. schjeniculus, 

 which some ornithologists now consider to be merely varieties of the same species. 

 We have observed the Snowfleck (Plectrophanes nivalis) alive, and kept it long 

 in confinement ; and we consider its affinity to be, decidedly, with the true Frin- 

 gill^e, and not with the Emberiz^e, to which it has generally been approxi- 

 mated. On the other hand, we would separate the long-winged ground Linnets 

 (Leucosticte, Swainson), two or three Asiatic species of which (including Frin- 

 gillauda nemoricola, Hodgson, are assigned to Montifringilla by Mr. 

 Gould, unhesitatingly from the latter group, and adopt for them Mr. Swainson's 

 name Leucosticte. Nearly affined, but on a larger scale, with longer bill having 

 a slightly curved upper outline, and less elongated wings, there is the Pyrrho- 

 spiza punicea, Hodgson, nobis {Propyrrhula rubeculoides, Hodgson) ; and 

 other forms are akin, somewhat difficult to classify. The Himalayan red Finches 

 known to me are as follow. 1. Restricted Pyrrhula, the true Bullfinches. 

 Two species, P. nipalensis, Hodgson, and P. erythrocephalus, Vigors. 2. 

 Pyrrhuloides epauletta, (Hodgson). 3. Propyrrhula subhemachalana, 

 (Hodgson). Combines the beak of Pyrrhula, scarcely less broad, with the 

 plumage of Strobilophaga {Cory thus) and Loxia ; only softer, and the wings 

 are shorter and more rounded. Strobilophaga leads from this to No. 4, Loxia ; 

 of which a peculiar species exists in L. himalayensis, Hodgson, as much small- 

 er and weaker than L. curvirostra as L. pytiopsittacus is larger and stouter. 

 L. curvirostris I have seen alive from Afghanistan. Then we must interpo- 

 late the (5) Hjematospiza sepahi, Hodgson, nobis; and after this may follow the 

 (6) Carpodaci, viz. C. rubicilla, (Gould, v. Coccothraustes caucasicus, Pallas), 

 from Kashmir, &c. — C. rodochlamys, (Brandt, v. C. sophia, Bonap., and C. 

 grandis, nobis,) — and the common Indian Tuti, which I have much reason to 

 doubt is identical with the northern C. erythrina. 7. Next follows a group 

 to which the N. American C. purpureus seems to lead, with less tumid bill, and 

 the plumage of the males more or less of a vinaceous red colour. Phcenico- 

 spiza, nobis ; two Himalayan species, Ph. rodopepla, (Vig.), and Ph. rodo- 

 chroa, Vigors. 8. Hardly separable from the last except by its more slender 

 bill, follows the Procarduelis nipalenis, Hodgson : and then we have Pyr- 



