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YUNX ENDICA. Gove

Indian Wryneck.

Yunw Indica, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., November 13, 1849.

 

Ir is a remarkable fact, that while the researches of modern naturalists have rendered it necessary to
restrict or to subdivide nearly all the genera proposed by the earlier writers, the genus Yune has not only
remained unchanged, but without a synonym, which is doubtless to be attributed to the circumstance of
only one species of the form, the Yunw torquilla of Kurope, having been known for nearly one hundred
years after the period (1748) when the genus was established by the celebrated Linneus: in 1831
Mr. Vigors described a second species, from Southern Africa, under the name of Y. pectoralis; in 1845

 

Dr. Riippell described and figured a third, from Abyssinia, as Y. Axquatorialis ; aud I now have the gratifi-
cation of characterizing a fourth species of this limited group as the Y. Jndica; it is from the western por-
tion of India, the fauna of which country comprises additional species of so many of the rarer European
genera, such as Nucifraga, Strobilophaga, &c., that it would have been remarkable indeed if no addition
to this form had been found there.

The Indian Wryneck is most nearly allied to the Y. pectoralis, but differs from that species in being of a
larger size; in the lighter hue of the centre of the abdomen; in the striae down the centre of the abdominal
feathers being less strongly defined; in the under tail-coverts bemg pale buff instead of rufous; and
in the tarsi and feet being, apparently, yellowish flesh-colour instead of brown: it is more distantly allied to
the Y. Avguatorialis, but that bird is at once rendered conspicuously different by the red colouring of the
throat descending to the breast and upper part of the abdomen, and by the ferruginous hue of its under
tail-coverts.

I regret to say that the only information I have to communicate respecting this new species is, that I
obtained it, together with a few other rare and new birds, which I believe had been collected in Afghani-
staun and Thibet; a belief, which is strengthened by Lord Arthur Hay having informed me that some of

i the same species had been shot by him in those countries; Mr. Bartlett also informs me that he has seen
a second example in a collection of Indian birds, the precise locality of which was unknown to him. — Its
habits, manners and general economy are doubtless very similar to those of the other members of the genus.

Upper surface pale brown, finely freckled with grey, and blotched, particularly down the back of the neck,
on the centre of the back, and on the wing-coverts, with brownish black ; primaries brown, crossed on their
outer webs with regular bands of deep buff, and toothed on their inner webs with the same hue; remainder
of the wing-feathers like the upper surface, but crossed by broad irregular bands of brown; tail like the
upper surface, but crossed by narrow irregular bands of brownish black; sides of the throat and neck
crossed by numerous narrow bars of blackish brown; the cheeks the same, but somewhat paler; on the
centre of the throat a spatulate mark of chestnut-red; centre of the abdomen and under tail-coverts pale
buffy white, with a fine stripe of brownish black down the centre of each feather; flanks crossed by irre-
gular bars of brownish black ; bill pale horn-colour, deeper at the tip; legs apparently yellowish flesh-colour.

The figures are of the natural s1ze.

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