88 BUBONlDiE. 



dark brown, and all broadly tipped with white, giving a hoary 

 appearance to the upper parts ; under surface of body white, tinged 

 with ochraceous buft' here and there, and obscurely barred across 

 with dark brown : even in the nestling the tarsal feathering very 

 dense. 



Adult female. Above dull sandy brown, everywhere freckled with 

 blackish vermiculations, much broader and more distinct in the 

 centres of the feathers, giving in some indications of mesial streaks ; 

 head and neck rather more rufescent than the back, the feathers 

 coarsely mottled or dotted with small spots of sandy rufous, the 

 centres of the feathers of the crown blackish, with broad lateral 

 cross hues of black ; on the head and hind neck are three bands — 

 one on the occiput not veiy distinct, composed of greyish white 

 feathers scantily freckled with black cross lines, the shaft-streaks 

 being black ; on the nape a second and more distinct baud of greyish 

 white feathers coarsely mottled with sandy rufous at the tips and 

 vermiculated with black, minute frecklings of the latter colour being 

 apparent on most of the white feathers ; round the hind neck a third 

 and very distinct collar of ochraceous buff plumes less barred and 

 mottled with blackish than the two preceding ones, and consequently 

 more distinct ; scapulars rather greyer than the rest of the back, the 

 outermost yellowish buff externally, with scarcely any blackish 

 frecklings ; wing-coverts rather darker brown than the back, and a 

 little more rufous, the blackish vermiculations being very coarse, the 

 greater coverts fulvescent towards their tips, forming a uniform spot 

 on the outer web, but mottled with blackish vermiculations near the 

 tip of the inner one ; spurious quills externally notched with ful- 

 vous ; primary coverts blackish brown, crossed with about four bars of 

 deep tawny buff, more or less obscured with blackish vermiculations ; 

 quills dark brown, barred with paler brown, these being represented 

 on the outer web by not strictly conterminous bars of sandy buif, 

 everywhere slightly obscured with blackish vermiculations, the outer 

 webs of the primaries largely notched with huffy white, giving a 

 chequered appearance to this portion of the wmg, the innermost 

 secondaries mottled and vermiculated like the scapulars ; tail dark 

 brown, varied towards the tips with vermiculations of sandy buff 

 and crossed with seven bands of the same on the outer feathers, only 

 about six being distinguishable on the centre ones ; frontal and loral 

 plumes ashy white, narrowly margined with blacldsh, these plumes 

 forming at the same time a very conspicuous eyebrow ; the adjacent 

 sides of the crown are at the same time ashy white, extremely finely 

 vermiculated with brown, so as to form a streak along the sides of 

 the head, continued even to the ear- tufts, which are 1-25 inch long, 

 and are greyish white on the other side, with fine brownish cross 

 lines, the outer webs blackish at tip and mottled with rufous spots ; 

 above the hinder part of the eye a small patch of rufous feathers 

 mottled with black, produced backwards to the base of the ear- 

 tufts, the outermost small plumes of which resemble them in colour ; 

 sides of face ashy white, slightly tinged with rufous below the eye, 



