208 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
496 [bis). Ruticilla erythroprocta (Gould). 
(? 496. Ruticilla rufiventris^ Vieillot.) 
Numbers of this supposed species were met with from 
Le up to the Pangong Lake, and again in Yarkand at the 
foot of the hills. [G. H.'] 
Procured at widely diflPerent dates, the specimens tend to 
throw much doubt upon the value of this newly separated 
species, and after comparing them with a vast series of R. 
rufiventris and of the so-called R. phmnicuroides of Moore, 
which are undoubtedly different forms of the same species, 
I experience great difficulty in believing that R. erythro- 
procta is anything but the full breeding plumage of R. rufi- 
ventris. So far as the gradation of plumage goes no links 
seem to be wanting, but it did appear at first that the bills 
of the R. erythroprocta type were somewhat larger than those 
of R, rufiventris. On further examination this difference in 
size appeared to be chiefly due to the frontal feathers in R. 
rufiventris being some fuller and longer, and covering up 
more of the bill; in the bills themselves, when entirely 
divested of feathers, it is not clear that there is any real 
difference in size and the length of the frontal plumes, and 
the extent to which they extend over the upper mandible 
doubtless depends upon the season. In one specimen the 
whole of the back, coverts, head, neck, throat, and breast 
are black ; there is a narrow (slightly greyish) white band 
across the forehead about three-eighths of an inch above 
the base of the upper mandible, and behind this the feathers 
of the crown and nape have a faintly ashy tinge. In other 
specimens this white frontal band is greyer and extends 
further back, and the whole of the nape and upper back 
are more or less overlaid with ashy. In specimens later 
killed, again, the frontal band has spread over the whole 
crown, and has become pale grey throughout. In the next 
stage the bird is undistinguishable from the R. phoani- 
curoides of Moore, which we obtain in the plains, and which i 
is the August plumage of R. rufiventris, 
I do not positively assert that R. erythroprocta is not a 
good species, but what I submit is that I have specimens 
