254 
Letters, Announcements, fyc. 
casus is totally different from that which occurs in Persia 
and Asia Minor, and as these two species have not been found 
inhabiting the same mountain-range, it is evident that T. Cau¬ 
casians cannot be regarded as a synonym of T . caspius , but 
must stand by itself. 
The Lophophorus nigelli of Jardine and Selby (Ill. Orn. 
pi. 76) appears to have been founded on a female obtained 
from the same district as the bird described by Gmelin; and 
as the descriptions and figures agree sufficiently well, this 
name must be referred (as it already has been by various 
authors) to T. caspius. 
Other specimens which have of late attracted attention 
are :—(1) a bird in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, ori¬ 
ginally received from Erzeroum, and described by M. Oustalet 
under the name of Tetraogallus challayei (Bull. Soc. Phil. 
1875, p. 54, and Journ. de Tlnst. 1875, p. 353); (2) A series 
of specimens collected in the Taurus by myself, and upon 
which Mr. Dresser has based his Tetraogallus tauricus (P. Z. S. 
1876, p. 675); and (3) a bird mentioned as inhabiting Ar¬ 
menia (?) by Herr Badde, and referred to without description 
by HH. Bolle and Brehm as Megaloperdix raddei (Journ. fur 
Orn. 1873, p. 4). 
All these three names are, without any doubt, synonymous. 
Specimens of Tetraogallus tauricus which have been com¬ 
pared with L. nigelli have been found to agree with that bird, 
and consequently with T. caspius. The three names given 
above are therefore synonyms of the original T. caspius ; 
and, unless the specimen recently obtained in the Manrack 
Mountains by Messrs. Finsch and Brehm should prove to be 
new, the genus Tetraogallus at present consists of five species, 
viz. Tetraogallus caspius (Gm.), T. caucasicus (Pall.), T 
himalayensis, G. R. Gray, T. altaicus (Gebler), and T. ti - 
betanus, Gould. 
Yours &c., 
C. G. Danford. 
