1 66 THE NEPAL KOKLASS. 



In nipalensis, the whole of the feathers of the lower back, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts are broadly centred with black, but 

 in macrolopha they are mostly grey, paling towards the margins, 

 and this appears to be the case also in castanea. 



I have never yet been able to obtain any typical specimens 

 of the so-called castanea (I retain Mr. Gould's name for reasons 

 fully explained, S. R, VII, 124). 



The bird figured as such by Mr. Elliot is not, in my opinion, 

 the true castanea, but an intermediate form. No doubt 

 Mr. Elliot says that he purchased the type of P. castanea from 

 Mr. Gould, but he is mistaken, since Mr. Gould's types were 

 specimens collected in Kafiristan by Griffiths, at that time, and 

 probably still, in the Indian Museum. 



Again, neither the bird figured by ourselves nor that figured 

 by Mr. Elliot as macrolopha is what I consider typical macrolo- 

 pha, of which our Museum contains a very large series. Both 

 represent forms more or less intermediate between macrolopha 

 and nipalensis. Mr. Gould's figures of these two species are 

 fairly illustrative of them, but even these by no means re- 

 present the most extreme or thoroughly characteristic examples 

 that might have been selected to exhibit the differences of the 

 two races. But they show these better than ours do. 



No doubt these races grade into each other, and it is therefore 

 most difficult to define their exact range, but, as at present in- 

 formed, true macrolopha is the species that spreads from Central 

 Kashmir to throughout most, if not the whole, of British 

 Garhwal and perhaps part of Kumaun. 



Typical nipalensis is apparently confined to the northern 

 portions of the western-half of Nepal (I have never been able 

 to hear of any Koklassin Eastern Nepal, or Sikhim, or anywhere 

 in the Himalayas further east) ; but some of the Kumaun 

 specimens (and I have been told some from the extreme 

 east of British Garhwal) exhibit more or less of the charac- 

 teristics of nipalensis. 



Castanea, again, in its typical form is said to be confined to 

 Yasin Mastuj, Chitral, Swat and Kafiristan, but this rests on 

 absolutely no authority. Certainly specimens obtained in the 

 westernmost portions of Kashmir show a leaning towards 

 this form, and may prove to be identical with the specimens 

 on which the species was founded. 



Of castanea we have given no figure ; I have never yet suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining a typical specimen, and those Western Kash- 

 mir specimens that I have seen are certainly not distinct enough 

 to need figuring. Nothing, moreover, is really known of its 

 distribution, habits, or the like. 



Macrolopha and nipalensis, though they undoubtedly, in my 

 opinion, locally grade into each other, are, I find, when typical 

 examples of each are selected, fairly distinguishable ; and 

 we have therefore figured both, though unfortunately not 



