192 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
356. Geocichla unicolor (Tickell). 
The Dusky Ground-Thrush was very common in Kashmir, 
but was not observed beyond the Zoji-la Pass. [G. H.~\ 
365. Planesticus atrogularis (Temm.). 
This species^ not observed on the upward journey, was 
very plentiful on the return march in October from Chagra, 
(altitude 15,000 feet) above the Pangong Lake, throughout 
Ladak and Kashmir, and by November it was widely spread 
over the plains of the Panjab. I recorded the dimensions 
of several, the females being somewhat smaller than the 
males. Length, 9.75 to 10 ; tail from vent, 4 ; expanse, 
14 75 to 16*75 ; wings when closed reached to within from 
1'5 to 1*75 of end of tail; the legs and feet varied from 
dark ashy to brown ; and the bill, which is yellow at the 
gape and base of lower mandible, from blackish ashy to 
brown. [G. H.'\ 
This species, so far as we yet know, breeds further north 
than Kashmir or Ladak, but it does not appear to have 
been met with in Siberia by Middendorf, Schrenk, Radde, 
&c. One might have expected it to breed in Yarkand, but 
no specimen was there obtained. Is the full breeding 
line towards the tip. Lower tail-coverts and axillaries, as well as wing 
lining, pale ferruginous buff. 
Degland describes a young bird just taken from the nest thus: "Above, 
ashy brown ; feathers of the head, nape, and back — ashy, rufous at the 
centre, brown towards the tips. Front of the neck and breast like the 
back, but with larger spots. Abdomen rufous, the feathers irregularly 
tipped with brown. Under tail-coverts uniform light rufous. Tail as 
in the female." Yarrell describes another young bird thus : " All the 
upper parts light and brown, each feather terminated with a spot of 
greyish white. Quill feathers tipped with buff}' white ; wing-coverts 
edged with grey and tipped with huffy white ; tail-feathers red, the second 
in the middle black in the centre ; under part of the body something like 
that of the female, but more barred with white, which is again intersected 
with brown lines." 
Neither of these descriptions exactly agree either with the Yarkand bird 
above described or with other European specimens which I possess, and 
which tally precisely with this latter ; but doubtless correctly represent 
other stages of the young bird's plumage, and I have therefore reproduced 
them. iA. O. S.] • 
