Pucrasia nipalensis, Gould.
Vernacular JSTamee.—[PokraK, Nepal.]
S I have already noticed, when speaking of the previous
species, many authorities consider the Koklass of
the Himalayas referable to three distinct species.
Whether these three forms should be considered
distinct species or only treated as varieties or local
races, is of no essential significance. All classification
is purely a matter of convenience ; nature
lays down no hard and fast lines, and those that we profess
to lay down, when we pretend to declare that this is merely a
race, that a distinct species, and so on, are purely arbitrary and
dependent on personal idiosyncracics.
So far as I myself am concerned, I incline to consider the
whole of the Koklass, which are as yet known to occur in
our hills, as one and the same species, varying much according
to localities, and somewhat also, as regards individuals,
even in the same locality, but all so running one into the
other, and all accompanied by so many intermediate forms,
that it is desirable to treat all as one species.
Others, equally competent to judge, think that we have
three distinct species, and it is therefore desirable to recognize
their differences, and explain how typical examples of each
form are distinguished.
In niacrolopha, the chestnut of the lower throat and middle of
breast, &c, does not extend at all round the neck ; the feathers
of the back and sides of the neck, interscapulary region, sides
of the breast, and body and flanks, are grey, with narrow, central
black stripes.
In nipalensis (I speak on the strength of several specimens
recently procured for me in Nepal by Dr. Scully), all these
feathers are black, with only narrow grey edges, many of them,
especially on the sides and flanks, with narrow reddish shaft
lines. In this species or race, also, the red does not go round the
neck.
In castanea, the feathers of the flanks arc apparently much
more like these of nipalensis, but there is a much greater extent
of chestnut on the breast and belly, and the chestnut goes all
round the base of the neck.