C A M M T E H S OBBE1T T A L IS .
CARDUELIS ORIENTALIS , Vigors.
E astern Goldfinch.
Passer carduelis, var.. Pallas, Zöogr. Rosso-Asiat. ü. p. 16 (1811).
Friiiffilla orientalis, Eversmann, Addenda ad Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. fase. ii. p. 9 (1841).—Gray, Hand-list
o f B irds, ii. p. 80 (1870).
Carduelis orientalis, Severtz. Türkest. Jevotnie, pp. 64, 116.—Dresser, Ibis, 1875, pp. 242, 387.
T h e birds which I have figured in the Plate are from Central Asia, and are evidently the true orientalis of
Eversmann. I notice that Mr. Dresser and Dr. Severtzoff unite this species unhesitatingly to the Himalayan
Goldfinch, Carduelis caniceps; but they seem to me to constitute, if not two species, at least two
easily recognizable races, and I have refrained, therefore, from adding the extensive synonymy o f C. caniceps
to that of the present bird. C. orientalis is a larger and more powerful bird than C. caniceps, with a longer
bill, and it is not so ruddy in colour, being of a more ashen and desert-like hue. I have beautiful full-
plumaged specimens of each bird, and after comparing them carefully I think they may fairly be considered
distinct, as, in addition to the smaller size of C. caniceps, the colour o f its scarlet face is brighter and more
vivid.
There can be little doubt that this is the bird considered by Pallas to be a variety of the common Goldfinch,
and it was found by him in summer on the shores of the Yenisei River.
Of this Dr. Severtzoff very truly observes:— “ This bird is not merely a climatic variety of the European
Goldfinch, from which it differs in lacking the black markings on the head, the yellowish brown on the back
and on the breast being replaced by grey. Both species inhabit the same localities in the Thian-Shan
mountains ; and the distinctive characters were constant in all of the hundreds of specimens I examined.
The differences between Passer salicarias and Passer domesticus are also constant, although these two Sparrows
frequently inhabit the same localities, and are found in the same flock; and they hold good not only in the
autumn dress, but also in the full breeding-plumage.”
Although specimeus were contained in Captain T. Biddulph’s Yarkand collections, it is not mentioned by
Dr. Scully, our latest authority on the avifauna of this part of the world, nor was it procured by Dr. Henderson
during his journey from Lahore to Yarkand.
Adult. General colour above ash-brown, rather mealy in appearance, the scapulars and least wing-coverts
uniform with the b ack; primary and greater coverts jet-black, the latter bright golden yellow towards the
tips of the la tte r ; quills black, golden yellow for half o f the outer webs, the inuermost secondaries white on
the outer web, decreasing gradually into a white spot on those nearer the middle o f the wing; rump and
upper tail-coverts pure white; tail black, with a large terminal spot of white, the two outer feathers nearly
all white on the inner web, black only at base and at tip ; forehead and fore pact of cheeks and chin scarlet,
the feathers in front of the eye blackish; ear-coverts and under surface of body light ashy brown, with a
greyish shade on the chest; the throat, abdomen, and under tail-coverts whitish; under wing-coverts,
axillaries, and inner lining of quills white, the small coverts near the edge of the wmg dusky, tipped with
dull whitish and slightly washed with yellow. Total length 51 inches, wing 31, tail 31.
The figures in the Plate are of the natural size, and are drawn from a pair of Turkestan birds m my own
collection.