CINCLUS SORDIDUS, Gow.

Sombre-coloured Water-Ouzel.

Cinclus sordidus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xxvii. p. 494.

 

Aux the information I am able to render respecting the bird figured in the accompanying plate, is that
while at Banchory Ternan I paid a hurried visit to its little museum, which principally consisted of a collec-
tion of birds from Western India and Thibet, formed by Dr. A. Leith Adams, of the 22nd Regt. ; and found
therein, among other interesting objects, a species of Cinclus which had never before come under my notice,
and which I was kindly permitted by Dr. Adams to bring to London for the purpose of comparison with the
other known species, and to figure in the ‘ Birds of Asia.’ Subsequently Dr. Adams sent me the following
note, respecting the locality in which he observed the bird. “I have fished out the true history of C. sordidus
from among my masses of MS. notes, and give you, verbatim, a note made on the 26th of July, 1852, near
Chimouraree, Lake Ladakh, Thibet :—‘ Added two new species to my collection, one of which I take to be the
C. aquaticus ; the other is a dark-brown ouzel, darker than the bird I have in my collection, and killed in the
lesser ranges near Dagshai. Both species were together today. ‘They are distinct species, surely, and not
male and female? The latter may be a variety of C. Pallasi.’” have considered it best to give the fore-
going note verbatim. The white-breasted bird which Dr. Adams thought might be C. aguaticus proves to
be a distinct species; and I have accordingly conferred upon it a specific designation—that of C. Cashme-
riensis. ‘The dark-brown ouzel is the bird here figured, and which, being also new, I have called Cinclus
sordidus, in allusion to its sombre colouring. The bird observed by Dr. Adams on the lower ranges was
doubtless the C. Asraticus.

In the colouring of the body the C. sordidus somewhat assimilates to C. Pallasi and C. Asiaticus; but it
has a distinct throat- and chest-mark of a much lighter colour, and, did crosses occur in a state of nature, it
would seem to be a cross between C. Cashmeriensis and C. Asiaticus ; but it is unlikely that such will prove
to be the case; the C. sordidus must therefore, for the present at least, rank as a distinct species. The
specimen has not been returned to the little town of Banchory Ternan, but has been liberally presented by
Dr. Adams to the British Museum, where it may be consulted by any ornithologist desirous of examining
the original from which my description was taken.

Crown of the head, back of the neck, throat, and chest chocolate-brown, the throat and breast lighter
than the back of the head ; back, abdomen, and tail deep brownish black, the abdomen somewhat the darkest ;
wings nearly the same colour as the back; tarsi brown, lighter on the front and on the upper part of the
toes.

The birds are represented in the plate of the natural size.