218 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
dull olive green ; and still more rarely it is a clear pinkish 
white. These latter eggs are so rare that I have only seen 
six in about as many hundreds. 
In size the eggs vary from 0*53 to 0*7 in length and from 
0"43 to 0'5_, in breadth, but the average of 120 eggs 
measured was 0*61 by 0'45. \_A. O. H.] 
546 {bis). Suya albosnperciliaris (Hume). (PL XVIII.) 
A single specimen of this remarkable bird was obtained 
on the lOth of September, on the Yarkand plains, at 
Koshtak, an oasis in the desert, where a few fields of peas, 
barley, and wheat fringe for a breadth of a few hundred 
yards a small stream that further on loses itself in the 
desert. For a distance of from twelve to twenty miles in 
either direction an absolute desert of shifting sand and 
gravel stretches away to the horizon. Numerous small 
birds frequented these isolated fields, where the Common 
Swallow too was particularly numerous, but of the species 
now under consideration only a single individual, a female, 
was procured. [G. H.] 
Structurally this bird is more closely allied to the Suya 
than to any other of the Indian Drymoecince. There is, 
however, a slight difference in the shape of the wings. In 
Suya criniger and S. fuliginosa the fourth quill is the 
longest, the fifth and sixth are nearly equal to it, and the 
eighth equals the third. In S. atrogularis, the fifth is 
longest, the fourth and sixth sub-equal, and the eighth to 
the third ; in our present bird the fifth and sixth are 
longest, while the third is equal to the seventh ; moreover, 
it is a stouter and larger bird than any of the Indian species, 
and it will probably hereafter be considered deserving of 
generic separation. 
Dimensions. — Length, 7; expanse, 8; tail from vent, 4; 
wings when closed reach to within 2*5 inches of end of tail. 
Wing, 2*5 ; bill at front, 0*55 ; tarsus, 0-95 ; hind toe and 
claw, 0*55. 
Description. — Legs and feet flesh coloured; bill brown; 
lower mandible fleshy except at the tip. 
Plumage. — A long superciliary stripe from the nostrils 
