66 BUBONID-i;. 



coarser than on the back, all with concealed tawny buff bases, but 

 very few with any indications of a subterrainal buff bar, so that the 

 general appearance of the head is very uniform ; car-tufts 1 inch 

 long, of the same colour as the head, but appearing rather lighter 

 by reason of the orange-buff bases showing more plainly and ex- 

 tending for two thirds of the inner web ; upper scapulars rather 

 more blackish, the lower ones inclining to rufous sandy colour, the 

 vermiculations less distinct and wider apart, the outermost for the 

 greater part white, tipped with a bar of black, forming a very con- 

 spicuous shoulder-patch ; wing-coverts darker brown than the back, 

 the greater and median coverts paler and rather more rufescent, the 

 vermiculations, as on the lower scapulars, being less distinct ; the 

 coverts near the edge of the wing notched Avith white, the median 

 series with large ovate white spots on the outer webs, the greater 

 coverts less distinctly spotted with white near the tii>s ; quills dark 

 brown on the inner webs, sandy brown on the outer, with tolerably 

 distinct bars of blackish brown, more or less dissolving into vermi- 

 culations, the lighter interspaces becoming notches of white on the 

 outer web of the primaries, and giving a chequered appearance to 

 the external aspect of the wing ; the innermost secondaries light 

 sandy buff, coarsely vermiculated with blackish wavy lines ; upper 

 tail-coverts rufous sandy colour, with wavy linear vermiculations 

 as on the back ; tail dark brown, barred with sandy buff, the inter- 

 spaces more or less mottled with the latter colour towards the tips 

 of the feathers, these, like the extremities of the primaries, being 

 thickly mottled with sandy bi;ff ; about seven light bars distinguish- 

 able on the tail, those on the outer rectrices inclining to whitish 

 towards the margins of both webs ; loral plumes whitish at base, 

 the shafts develo})ing into long hair-like bristles ; over the front of 

 the e}'e a patch of white feathers, each tipped with a terminal bar 

 of blackish, the fcatliers above the eye with half-concealed white 

 bases, forming an inconspicuous superciliary mark ; ear-coverts 

 grejish white, the feathers round the eye deep sandy brown, with 

 narrow little shaft-streaks of fulvous ; behind the ear-coverts an 

 indistinct ruff, composed of orange-buff feathers, terminally barred 

 with black, the plumes of the checks white, with orange-buff 

 centres and a narrow blackish snbterminal line ; chin whitish ; 

 across the throat a continuation of the facial ruff equally indistinct, 

 the feathers being sandy-coloured at tip, with whitish bases and 

 wavy cross lines of black ; chest sandy buff', the centres of the fea- 

 thers longitudinally blackish, all the plumes with distinct blackish 

 lateral lines (excepting at the tips, which are minutely vermicu- 

 lated) and more or less barred with white, this colour gradually 

 extending on the breast and flanks, which are almost entirely white, 

 with blackish or sandy rufous centres to the feathers, all of which 

 are more or less mottled with sandy and minutely vermiculated 

 with wavy lines near the tips ; the under tail-coverts like the belly, 

 but having even less distinct cross vermiculations ; thighs and 

 feathered part of tarsus deep sandy buff, with blackish cross lines ; 

 under wing-coverts for the most part whitisli, with a few blackish 



