ON BRACHYRAMPHUS PERDIX (PALL.) AND 1TS NEAREST ALLIES. 21 5 



body might perhaps think, that the light color of the markings is 

 due to fading, but so is not the case, for I have before me a speci- 

 men (U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 17387) of exactly corresponding age, as 

 the condition off the plumage testifies, in which the tips of the 

 feathers are worn off to such an extent that the whole back is 

 nearly uniformly brownish black with but few traces of the 

 umber brown markings, except on Shoulders and sides of rump, but 

 these markings are still as bright and saturated rusty umber as 

 those in the May bird just assuming the new plumage. Another pecu- 

 liarity of B. perdix seems to be the very distinct white ring surroun- 

 ding the eye, a character which is not seen in any of the specimens 

 of B. marmoratus examined by me. In my example it is even more 

 pronounced than in B. brevirostiis, and is also very much so in 

 Pallas 's plate. 



In size B. perdix scarcely differs from B. marmoratus. but the 

 bill is markedly longer. 



From the fact that the general coloration of the winter pluma- 

 ges of B. brevirostris and B. marmoratus are very similar it may safely 

 be inferred that B. perdix also has a winter plumage gray above, 

 with a white Shoulder stripe, and pure white beneath. In this 

 garb the two last mentioned species may be difficult to distin- 

 guish, and still more so the young birds in the first plumage. The 

 length of the exposed culmen as compared with that of the tarsus 

 may serve as a distinctive character, however, and judging from the 

 summer-plumages I should think it probable, that the dark color 

 ot the upper head will not in winter reach so far down over the 

 ear coverts in B. perdix as in B. marmoratus. 



There can be no reasonable doubt as to Pallas's Cepphus per- 

 dix belonging here. True, he describes it as «supra fusco gryseoque 

 lituratus», but, judging from his use of the word gryseus in other con- 

 nections, he seems to indicate by it just a buffy gray,* and his plate 



* Ct., for instance, Emberi^a miliaria (Zoogr. II, p. ?$) and many other species ot" 

 Emberi^a which he describes as «gryseo fuscoque liturata» ; Tetrao coturnix (ibid., p. 80. 

 «grysea fusco variegata» ; etc. 



