216. Accentor atrigularis

216. BLACK-THROATED ACCENTOR.
ACCENTOR ATRIGULARIS.
Accentor atrigularis, Brandt. Bull. Acad. St. Petersb. ii. p. 140 (1844) ; Gould, B. of Asia, iv. pl. 48 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. vii. p. 606 ; Pleske, Prjevalsky’s Reisen, ii. p. 156 ; Dresser, ix. p. 109, pl. 654, fig. 2 ; Oates, F. Brit. Ind. Birds, ii. p. 170 ; A. huttoni, Moore, P.Z.S. p. 119, 1854.
Male ad. (Turkestan). Upper parts ashy hair-brown, striped with blackish brown, the crown darker, the sides blackish ; rump plain brown ; wings and tail brown, margined with fulvous ; superciliary stripe buff ; throat and sides of the head black ; rest of under parts ochraceous buff, the flanks and under tail-coverts striped with brown ; abdomen nearly white, hill blackish brown, fleshy at the base ; legs fleshy brown ; iris dark brown. Culmen 0.5, wing 2.95, tail 2.7, tarsus 0.82 inch. Female slightly duller in colour. In the winter the black on the throat is obscured by buffy white margins.
Hab. The Kirghis steppes, Turkestan, Samarkand, the Altai range, occurring as far west as Orenburg, ranging in winter to Afghanistan, the N. W. Himalayas, and the Punjab salt range.
They are usually seen in pairs and are not shy. Scully met with it in winter in orchards where they were running about on the sward near rose-bushes. It is said to breed in the Altai range and Eastern Turkestan, but so far as I can ascertain there is no authentic record of its nidification. Eggs said to belong to this species resemble those of Accentor modularis.