DETAILED LIST OF BIRDS. 
263 
Returning in October, it was observed in large flocks, at 
the same locality, and all the specimens then preserved 
had yellow bills. They occurred at a height of about 
13,000 feet, at the Fota-la Pass. [G. H.^ 
Gould is, I think, in error in considering the yellow bill 
a mark of immaturity. Looking through a large series, I 
find that all summer killed specimens have black, and all 
autumnal and winter specimens yellow bills. Some of those 
with yellow bills now before me are clearly old adult birds, 
with worn beaks. I consider the black bill to indicate the 
breeding garb. I know that this is the case both in 
M. nivalis and M. arctoa. 
This is another species, widely spread throughout the 
higher regions of the Himalayas, beyond the first snowy 
range. I have a specimen from beyond Gilgit, another 
from Kumaon, beyond Budrinauth, and a third killed by 
Captain Elwes, at the Kangra Lama (wherever that may be) 
in Sikkim, at an elevation, according to the ticket, of 
15,500 feet. Neither this nor the preceding species ever 
occur, so far as I have been able to ascertain, anywhere 
south of the first snowy range. Innumerable localities, 
apparently in every way suitable, and certainly high enough, 
are to be met with ; but these and many other of the 
midland Himalayan birds are never to be seen there, simply, 
I believe, because exposed to the influence of the periodical 
rains — the climate is too moist. {A. O. H.] 
with yellowish white and the latter ones with a white spot on the inner 
web near the tip. The first secondary with two-fifths of the inner web 
white; the last with half the inner and two-thirds of the outer webs, of 
the same colour, intervening quills intermediate between these extremes 
in the amount of white. Wing lining, axillaries, and under tail- 
coverts pure white, rest of the lower surface yellowish white, tinged 
greyish on the throat, owing to the dark bases of the feathers showing 
partially through. 
In the autumnal plumaged fresh moulted birds, the lores and feathers 
impending on the nostrils are whiter, the whole upper plumage has a 
faintly rulescent fawny tinge, the tertiaries and central tail-feathers are 
broadly margined with rufescent fawn, the lateral upper tail-coverts, the 
lower ditto, and the exterior margins of the lateral tail-feathers and some 
of the larger wing-coverts are tinged with the same colour, while the under 
surface is more decidedly yellowish white. 
