ACCENTOR E RYTHROPYGIUS, Swinh.
Red-backed Accentor.

Accentor erythropygius, Swinh. Proc. of Zool. Soc., 1870, pp. 124, 447, pl. ix.
alpinus, Schrenck, Vég. des Amur-L. p. 355 ?

 

Ir will be seen that in this work neither the subgeneric term Spermolegus, proposed for the <Accentor
montanellus, nor Tharrhaleus, for our common Hedge-Sparrow, has been employed, but that all the birds of this
group have been retained in the genus Accentor, of which the 4. alpinus is the type ; it is more immediately
to this latter section that the very fine bird here represented belongs.

Of the history of the Red-backed Accentor 1 know nothing more than has been placed on record by
Mr. Swinhoe in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,’ and in some MS. notes with which
he has favoured me since the former account was published :—

On a journey from Mongolia to Peking, in the Prefecture of Seuen-hwafoo, a tract of country enclosed
by two portions of the Great Wall, we halted on the 26th of September, 1868, at a place called Kemeih, and
climbed up the sides of a high mountain, on the top of which stood a monastery. We were in pursuit of the
Rock-Partridge (Caccabis chukar), when a party of red-tailed birds whisked past us and, perching near, kept
flying from rock to rock, uttering loud cries. Wesecured one, and then continued our chase after the Par-
tridges. A few days later I saw another small flock of the same species among the rocks of the fine mountain-
pass that leads through the Nankow Gate to the Peking plain. The bird proved to be an Accentor of the
A. alpinus form, most nearly allied to the Accentor nipalensis of Hodgson; but from this the handsome
A. erythropygius may be at once distinguished by the chestnut colouring of its rump, upper tail-coverts, and
tail, by its greyer head and neck, and by the markings of the flanks and belly. Accentor altaicus and
A. alpinus are also members of the same group of mottled-throated -lccentors.”

‘« Pere David,” says Mr. Swinhoe, in the MS. notes above acknowledged, “ does not include this species in
his ‘ Catalogue of the Birds of Peking ;’ and Gustav Radde did not meet with it in his travels in the southern
parts of Eastern Siberia ; but Middendorff found a bird which, from his description, is evidently this Species
(though identified by him with 4. a/pinus), in Amoorland, and saw the young in July, flying about in parties
on the steepest cliffs of the south shore of the sea of Okhotsk. Von Schrenck also met with it in Amoorland,
but failed to distinguish it from 4. a/pinus. It must also breed in the neighbourhood of Lake Baikal ; for I
have seen young specimens which M. Jules Verreaux had received thence.

‘The general plumage before the first moult is of a mottled yellowish grey; but the bright cinnamon
colouring of the rump and the margins of the tail-feathers mark at once the species, even at this early age.”

The following is Mr. Swinhoe’s description of this fine bird :—

‘Head, neek, and breast smoke-grey; lores, and beneath the eye mottled with white; throat, for nearly
an inch downwards white, crossed with narrow bars of black; lesser and greater wing-coverts and winglet
black, with a large spot of white at the tip of each feather; secondary quills black, ee a the greater
part of their length with yellowish brown, and broadly tipped with light Se neaihat terminating with white ; on
the tertiaries the chestnut brightens and increases in extent, and the terminal white spots are conspicuous ;
primaries blackish brown, edged with light yellowish brown, browner near their bases, and shgbtly tipped
with white; back light yellowish brown with broad brown eexines to the feathers ; scapularies brownish
chestnut, with a median streak of blackish brown and a small white tip to each feather ; the yellowish brown
of the back soon brightens into brownish chestnut, which is rich and conspicuous on the upper tail-coverts, tue
longest of which have black centres ; tail brownish black, the external rectrix with the greater part of its
Otten web brownish chestnut, and a broad white tip to the inner web; the rest of the rectrices, except the
two centrals, have their outer webs tipped with chestnut, their inner webs with white, and they are narrowly
edged with light yellowish brown ; the two centrals are oe broadly edged, and have broad au marks
on both their outer and inner webs towards the tips ; axillaries dusky, the carpal edge barred with black
and white like the throat ; under surface light yellowish brown ; Dray of the flank-feathers deep chestnut-
brown, with white margins; and the abdominal feathers have placistets NW slags bars and white margins ;
under tail-coverts blackish chestnut, with broad white margins and tips ; bill blackish brown, ochreous ello
on the sides of the basal half of the lower mandible ; irides chestnut ; legs and toes ochreous ; claws light
brown.”

The figures are of the natural size.

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