260 
ORNITHOLOGY, 
These birds are very restless^ constantly on the move, 
flying from bush to bush along the hill -side, and making a 
low chirping noise. My notes of one fine male are : — 
length, 5*75, tail from vent, 2; wing, 3*1 ; expanse, 8'75. 
Bill, legs and feet, black. [G. iJ.] 
Later in the autumn, the Golden-fronted Finch retreats 
further south, and enormous numbers swarm over the lower 
ranges nearer the plains, at heights of from 4000 to 7000 
feet. I have known of thirty being killed at one shot, near 
Kotegurh, in the valley of the Sutlej. \_A, O. H.^ 
751 {bis). Linota brevirostris,^ Gould. (PI. xxvi.) 
Three specimens of this rare bird were obtained on the 
banks of the Arpalak river, in Hill Yarkand, only a short 
distance from where the plains commence. [G. H.] 
* I reproduce Moore's original description and measurements. (P. Z. S., 
1855, p. 217.) 
" Allied to X. montium, but distinguished from that species by its 
lighter colour, and the male having the pink colour on the rump paler ; 
the axillaries and the basal edge of the inner web of the primaries and 
secondaries pure white ; the primaries and secondaries above are also 
broadly margined exteriorly with white. The female is also paler, and 
broadly edged, as in the male, with white. 
Length, 5 inches; of the wing, 3*87; of tail, 2'62; centric feathers, 
0"5 less ; bill to frontal plumes 0 3 ; to gape, 0'5 ; tarsus, 6-6 ; centre toe 
and claw, 0'62." 
This description agrees well enough with the Ladak, Sikkim, and 
Yarkand birds, but the dimensions seem in one respect scarcely reconcil- 
able. None of the birds before me were measured in the flesh, but the 
wing in which the greatest difference exists, as compared with Moore's 
dimensions, cannot have much changed in drying, besides which Moore's 
measurements must, like ours, have been taken from the dry skin. All 
the five birds before me are much about the same size. 
Dimensions. — Length (allowing for the contraction of the skins and 
carbolized specimens), 4*8 to 5 inches ; wing, 31 to 3'2 ; tail, 2-4 to 2*5 ; 
centre feathers, 0 3 less ; bill to frontal plumes, 0'29 to 0-35 ; to gape, 
0-4 to 0-45 ; tarsus, 0 58 to 0 61 ; hind toe and claw, O'S to 0-58. The 
first four primaries seem to be almost the same length, in some the second 
and in some the third are the longest, and in all the first is about 0 05 
shorter than the longest. 
Description. — The legs and feet are brown, the nails long and slender, 
the bill (apparently) fleshy, yellow brown at the tip. 
Plumage. — The whole head, neck, back, wing coverts, chin, throat, 
and breast, pale earthy, dingy fulvous, or pale sandy brown, in different 
