tit mmi Mutt 



Pucrasia nipalensis, Goukl 



Vernacular Names.— [Pokrass, Nepal.] 



S I have already noticed, when speaking of the previ- 

 ous species, many authorities consider the Koklass of 

 the Himalayas referable to three distinct species. 



Whether these three forms should be considered 

 distinct species or only treated as varieties or local 

 races, is of no essential significance. All classifi- 

 cation is purely a matter of convenience ; nature 

 lays down no hard and fast lines, and those that we profess 

 to lay down, when we pretend to declare that this is merely a 

 race, that a distinct species, and so on, are purely arbitrary and 

 dependent on personal idiosyncracies. 



So far as I myself am concerned, I incline to consider the 

 whole of the Koklass, which are as yet known to occur in 

 our hills, as one and the same species, varying much accord- 

 ing to localities, and somewhat also, as regards individuals, 

 even in the same locality, but all so running one into the 

 other, and all accompanied by so many intermediate forms, 

 that it is desirable to treat all as one species. 



Others, equally competent to judge, think that we have 

 three distinct species, and it is therefore desirable to recognize 

 their differences, and explain how typical examples of each 

 form are distinguished. 



In macrolopha, the chestnut of the lower throat and middle of 

 breast, &c, does not extend at all round the neck ; the feathers 

 of the back and sides of the neck, interscapulary region, sides 

 of the breast, and body and flanks, are grey, with narrow, central 

 black stripes. 



In nipalensis (I speak on the strength of several specimens 

 recently procured for me in Nepal by Dr. Scully), all these 

 feathers are black, with only narrow grey edges, many of them, 

 especially on the sides and flanks, with narrow reddish shaft 

 lines. In this species or race, also, the red does not go round the 

 neck. 



In castanea, the feathers of the flanks are apparently much 

 more like these of nipalensis, but there is a much greater extent 

 of chestnut on the breast and belly, and the chestnut goes all 

 round the base of the neck. 



