ACCENTOR IMMACULATUS, Hodgs.

Blue-shouldered Accentor.

Accentor unmaculatus, Hodgs. in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xii. p. 34.—Gray, Cat. of Spec. and Draw. of Mamm.
and Birds presented to Brit. Mus. by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., p. 71, and App. p. 153.
mollis, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xiv. p. 581.—Ib. Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta,
p- 131.—Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. iii. App. p. 8, App. to p. 187.—Bonap. Consp. Gen.
Av., p. 306.

 

A CAREFUL examination of the figure of this bird, comprised in Mr. Hodgson’s original and named drawings,
now at the British Museum, as well as of the numerous specimens in the national collection, and in the
Museum of the Kast India Company, has convinced me that the 4ecentor mollis of Mr. Blyth is identical
with the 4. ¢mmaculatus of Mr. Hodgson ; I am therefore obliged to reduce Mr. Blyth’s name to the rank
of a synonym. Mr. Blyth considers this species to be the beauty of the genus, and I coincide in this opinion,
since it really is one of the most pleasingly coloured members of the genus yet discovered. As regards its
structure and contour, it more nearly assimilates to our Hedge Accentor than to any other ; and if we may judge
from its thick clothing and the silky feel of its plumage, forest lands, thick underwood, and humid places
are the situations it frequents ; but, on this point, nothing has as yet been recorded. I believe that all the
specimens sent to our museums have been collected in Nepaul, a country the natural productions of which
are rich in the extreme.

Head and back of the neck dark slate-grey, the feathers of the forehead narrowly fringed with silvery-
grey; lores black; wing-coverts pale grey; back chestnut-brown, gradually blending with the grey of the
back of the neck, and becoming of a paler hue on the upper tail-coverts ; spurious wing black ; primaries
brown, narrowly edged with silvery-grey; secondaries and tertiaries more chestnut externally, internally
brown; tail slaty-brown; chin, throat, chest and upper part of the abdomen pale slate-grey ; lower portion
of the flanks, vent, and under tail-coverts dark rusty-red ; bill black ; feet fleshy-brown.

In other specimens, supposed to be females, a similar style of colouring prevails, but the tints are more

blended and of a lighter hue. The plant is a species of Genteana.

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