ON BRACHYRAMPHUS PERDIX (PALL.) AND ITS NEAREST ALLIES. 



2I 7 



described the very same bird (Ibis, 1884, p. 30) as «marbled 

 with buffish chestnut on the Upper parts» ; but judging from his use 

 of the term «chestnut» in other places (as, for instance, when he 

 describes the under wing-coverts of Turdus iliacus as «rieh chestnut», 

 or those of T. naumanni as «chestnut», Cat. B. Brit. Mus. V, pp. 

 190 and 264) his «buffy chestnut» color cannot be materially diffe- 

 rent from that of the light dorsal markings in B. perdix. In fact, I 

 consider myself hyper-cautious in putting a r in front of the names 

 given by him to the Japanese bird, as done in the above synonymy. 



The following detailed description of the speeimen may, per- 

 haps, not be out of place : 



$ ad. (Coli. Stejneger. Kamtschatka. August 27, 1884). Entire 

 upper surface from the nostrils, including lores, a narrow line under- 

 neath the eyes, and the Upper half of the ear-coverts of a brownish 

 black, from the forehead backward tolerably regularly barred with 

 dull tawny and buff ; a narrow longitudinal stripe of the same light 

 color, about 25 mm. long, in the middle of the back; scapulars at 

 the base more or less white, and towards the tip barred with the 

 same color so as to produce considerable white admixture to the 

 mottlings on the Shoulders; the feathers covering the base of the 

 bill are nearly uniform blackish brown, a few white ones bordering 

 the base of the tomia; ground color of all the under parts of the 

 body white, very faintly suffused with buff on the fianks, mottled 

 with dusky, darker on the anterior half and less densely on throat 

 and sides of neck, grayer and more confiuent posteriorely, espe- 

 cially on the abdomen which is of a dusky gray more or less trans- 

 versely mottled with whitish ; wing above blackish brown, underneath, 

 including axillaries lighter grayish brown, the middle and lesser 

 coverts distinctly margined with cinereous ; all the tail-feathers 

 above and beneath uniform blackish brown. Bill black. 



Museum 



Sex 

 andage 



Locality 



Date 



Wing 



Tail-f. 



Exp. 

 Cul- 

 men 



Tarsus 



Middle 



toe with 



claw. 



Stejneger 



$ ad 



«Kamtschatka» 



Aug. 27/84 



ij6 



?6 



20 



18 



29 



