446 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. Xll. 



abdomen white more or less speckled with brown towards the vent ; 

 thigh coverts brown and white ; flanks white, finely barred with 

 black, the feathers nearest the tail with two hroad bars of >vhite and 

 grev divided by a narrower black line ; under tail coverts white, or 

 buffy-white, the shorter with brown drops. Under wing ccverts 

 mainly dark grey, the central ones and asillaries white. 



Irides dark brown, bill brownish-black, nail black, margins of 

 maxilla and lower mandible paler ; legs and feet dark grey. 



I have a bird which had the feet bright orange, this must bo some- 

 thing very unusual. 



'' In the adult male the bill is normally blackish above, brownish on 

 the lower mandible, except at the tip, often reddish-brown at the gape." 



"The legs and feet are grey, pale greenish-brown, grey with an 



olive shade, grey slate colour, purplish slate colour, bluish ...in all 



cases the webs being more or less dusky and the claws darker still." 

 (Hume.) 



Length 15" to 17'' ; tail about 2-8" ; wing 7-G" to 8'0" ; tarsus 1" to 

 1-2", bill from gape I'S". 



" Length 15-9" to 16-25" ; expanse 25" to 27'25" ; wing 7-4" to S'l"; 

 tail from vent 3-3" to 3-8" ; tarsus 1" to 1'3" ; bill from gape 1-75" to 

 1*92" ; weight 10 ozs., to lib. (commonly about 13 ozs.)." (Hume.) 



Width of bill at gape '52 " at tip -62". 



Female. — Above dark brown, all the feathers with pale margins 

 except the crown, which is rather richer than elsewhere and centered 

 darker; chin and throat white ; neck greyish or buffy-white with all 

 the feathers minutely streaked with dark brown; a superciliary stripe 

 from above the eye and a spot on the front of the lores white or 

 buffy-white; wings greyish-brown, in old females more grey, especially 

 on the smaller coverts ; speculum as in the male but very blurred 

 and indistinct ; fore-neck and upper breast dark brown with broad 

 pale edges to the feathers, lower breast, abdomen and vent white, 

 buffy-white or buff; the flanks, sides and under tail coverts the same 

 splotched, barred and spotted with brown. 



Colours of soft parts the same as in the male. 



" In some females the bill is similar" (to the males), " in somo 

 apparently adult, it is blackish plumbeous above, dull plumbeous 

 below" (Hume.) 



