ACCENTOR ATROGULARIS, Brandt.

Black-throated Accentor.

Accentor atrogularis, Brandt, Bull. des Acad. des Sci. de St. Pétersb., i. no. 23 —Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds,
vol. 1. p. 187, Accentor, sp. 7..-Hutton, Journ. Asiat Soc. Beng., vol. xviii. p. 811.—Blyth, Cat. of
Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 131.
atrigularis, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 305, Accentor, sp. 5.
Huttont, Moore in Horsf. Cat. of Birds in Mus. East Ind. Comp., vol. i. p. 360.

 

I nap long suspected that the descriptions of Accentor atrogularis, given by M. Brandt at St. Petersburg and
Capt. Hutton in India, had reference to one and the same bird, and I therefore delayed figuring it until I was
enabled to form a decided opinion upon the subject; I also questioned whether the bird from the Vienna
Collection, figured by me in my “ Birds of Europe” under the name of decentor montanellus, might not be
either a female or young of the same species; some of my specimens from the Himalaya having brown
feathers interspersed here and there over the throat, suggesting that that part is not always black. I am
satisfied that the Siberian and Himalayan birds described by Brandt and Hutton, together with the
Accentor Huttoni of Moore, constitute but one and the same species; and this view of the subject is
confirmed by Sir William Jardine, in a note received from him on the 22nd of December, 1854 :—
“Your specimen of Accentor is identical with the Siberian bird I have, which was sent by Brandt, and
agrees with his description in the ‘Bulletin’ of the St. Petersburg Academy. Your specimen has the
under parts of a deeper yellowish sienna tint than ours, which is nearly white in the centre of the belly: the
same difference appears in the colour of the superciliary streak, which is nearly white in the Siberian bird.
These differences are noticed by Brandt in his description. Your skin looks a little larger, but the wing is
of the same length in both: the bill in your specimen is about the twentieth of an inch longer. I cannot
separate them as species, either from each other or from Brandt’s description. Your specimen is also
identical with Hutton’s 4. atrogularis, in which the deeper tint of the under parts and the superciliary streak
are mentioned.” I ought perhaps to mention that Professor Brandt is inclined to believe that the 4. monta-
nellus of Temminck is not the bird to which Pallas gave the specific appellation of montanellus, but is either
a variety of it or a distinct species, and in the belief that it would prove to be the latter, proposed for it the
mcon A emmincki; but Professor Blasius states that the 4. Temmincke is not distinct from 4. montanellus.

It is evident then that this bird is widely spread over the countries extending from the Himalayas to
Siberia; all my specimens are from the subalpine districts of those lofty mountains, while Mr. Blyth states
that those in the Museum of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta were from the Tyne range beyond Simla ;
those in the Museum of the Honourable East India Company are from Affghanistan, and those in the
Museum of the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg are from Semipalatinsk in Siberia. ,

Crown of the head dark greyish brown ; face and throat black ; above the eye, CO at the nostrils,
a narrow streak of buff, above which is another streak of black ; upper surface greyish brown, with a streak
of dark brown down the centre of each feather ; wing-coverts greyish brown, with a mark of dark brown
near the extremity, and tipped with buffy white ; primaries and secondaries dark ae the former narrowly
and the latter broadly margined with hight brown ; tail light brown ; under surface buff, streaked with brown
on the flanks; irides dark brown ; bill brown, lighter at the base ; legs light brown.

The figures are the size of life.

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