60'4 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



Faligula jerina, David and Wend., " Str. Featli.," VII, p. 93; Hume, 

 ibid, p. 49(5 ; ibid, Catalogue, No. 9ii8 ; Hume and Marshall, " Game 

 Birds," III, p. 247 ; Legge, " Birds of Ceylon," p. 1,090 ; Butler, " Str. 

 Feath.," IX, p. 438 ; Reid, ibid, X, p. 84 ; David, ibid^ p. 326 ; 

 Taylor, ibid^ p. 531 ; Barnes, " Birds of Bombay," p. 412 ; Hume, 

 *'Str. Feath., " XI, p. 346. 



Nyroca Jerina, JSalvadori, Cat., " Birds of British Museum," XXVII, 

 p. 335 ; Blanford, " Avifauna of British India," IV, p. 458. 



Description : Adult Male. — Whole head and neck rich deep chestnut, 

 changing rather abruptly into the black of the U))per back and breast ; 

 rum[) and upper-tail coverts dull black ; remainder of upper plumage 

 extremely pale clear grey, very finely vermiculated with black 

 bars ; wing coverts dark grey, more or less vermiculated with white ; 

 priniiiries dark grey, edged outwardly and tipped blackish ; secondaries 

 forming a dull grey speculum, the feathers narrowly tipped whitish 

 and divided from the inner secondaries by narrow black borders to 

 two or three of these feathers ; lower breast blackish, the feathers more 

 or less fringed white ; remainder of lower plumage white, or very 

 pale grey, sparsely stippled with black, the stipplings more numerous 

 towards the vent and flanks ; under-tail coverts dull black ; tail dull 

 greyish-brown, tipped paler. 



Occasionall}- the male has a pure white spot at the apex of the 

 shin, a skin lent me by this Society having the ?pot more highly 

 developed than in any other specimen I have ever seen. 



Irides yellow or reddish-yellow ; base and end of bill bhick, inter- 

 mf^diate portion varying from pale, clear plumbeous-blue to rather didl 

 dark pl'iml)eous ; the legs vary through the same shades of grey or 

 plumbeous-blue, darker and blackish on the joints and webs. 



" 'Ww irides vary ; they are generally orange-yellow, hut I have noted 

 them brown in one aj)parently adult female and lac- red in an old male," 



''The legs and feet are pale bluish or slatey-grey, or dull leaden, 

 often darker on the joints, and with the webs black or nearly so. The 

 bills are black and bluish-grey or leaden, in var\ing proportions. In 

 some the whole bill is black, with only a Laden-coloured crescentic bar 

 on the upper mandible towards the tip. In others only the tip and the 

 basal portion ol the uf)per mandible to a lit'le beyond the nostrils are 

 black, and the whole intervening portion of the upper mandible is 



