1872.] W. T. Blanfori Zoology of SiTcJcm. 81 
-3 luscicapidcs, Merulidce (especially Buticillinw), Pycnonotidce and Treroniclis 
is greatly increased. 
In the higher elevations of Sikkim, an entirely distinct fauna appears, 
which is almost purely Palsearctic, although a lew Malayan types are met 
with. Arctomys, Laqomys, Mosclius and Ovis appear amongst the mam- 
mals, whilst nearly all the species found at lower elevations disappear. Of 
the birds, scarcely any of the Pica-rue, and only a single species of the 
Timalince are found at 12,000 feet ; the Pycnonotidce and TreronUhe are 
wanting, and the only families which gain in numbers are the Cinclidce, 
Fringillidce, and Phasianidce. Amongst the genera which are deficient at 
the lower elevations, but common in the higher ranges, are Oypaetus 
Troglodytes, Lophophanes, Accentor, Propasser, N uc if rag a, Fregilus, 
Ithagenis and Lerva. 
The principal object of my visit to the higher ranges of Sikkim was to 
examine and collect this Palsearctic fauna, and the principal result has been to 
ascertain that in these mountains two well marked sub-divisions of it are 
found : one inhabits the damper southern slopes of the hills, while the other is 
peculiar to the dry Tibetan climate. The latter we only entered in the 
upper Lachen valley, close to Kongra Lama, and to it belong the peculiar 
forms, Otocoris El ires i, Leucosticte Juematopygia, Mont if ring ilia rufcolhs, 
Fregilus pyrrhocorax, Cinclus sordidus and Accentor rubeculoides. 
A second object in my visit was to learn, so far as practicable, which of 
the migratory Passerine birds, found in the Indian plains in the winter, 
breed in the South-west Himalayas. My journey was undertaken rather 
too late in the year to render it at all probable that I should find any birds 
actually breeding, but still, as I was amongst the higher ranges at the 
migrating season, I had some opportunity of seeing which birds were 
previously there, and which appeared to arrive from the north. The result, 
so far as I was enabled to make observations, is rather surprising ; for it 
appears probable that scarcely any of the Indian migratory birds breed in 
Sikkim, but, in some cases, species which visit India during the winter and 
cross the Himalayas to breed, arc represented by allied forms which rarely or 
never leave the mountain ranges. Thus Chelidon urbica , which is a rare 
visitant to the plains of India* is represented by C. Nipalmsis and 
C. Cashmwiensis ; Erythrostcrna parm and E. leucura by E. maculata, which 
is but rarely found in the plains, and by the various species of Siphia ; 
Pratincola hulica by P.ferrea; Ruticilla mfiventris by B. frontalis, and 
others, Calliope Eamtschatkcnsis by C. pectoralis ; Motacilla per sonata and M. 
Luzoniensis by M. Hodgsoni ; Carpodacus erythrinus by species of Propasser. 
* I have shot it in Chhatisgarh in the Central Provinces in April. Tickell, 
J. A. S B 1855, p. 277, records it from Chota Nagpur and Moulmain ; Captain Irby 
from Oudh ; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 338. 
