554 MOTACILLID^. 



subequal to the long secondaries ; fifth much shorter than first. 

 Feet reaching to a little more than half the tail. Primaries emar- 

 ginate, 2, 3, 4, 5, all verj- distinct. 



Adult male in ivinter plumage (type of species). General colour 

 above mottled, the feathers being dull ashy brown, washed with 

 sandy buff, and having tolerably distinct blackish shaft-lines ; rump- 

 feathers with clearer sandy-rufous edgings, as also the upper tail- 

 coverts, the long ones of which are edged with ashy whitish ; lesser 

 wing-coverts like the back ; median and greater coverts blackish, 

 edged with sandy rufous, inclining to isabelline towards the ends 

 of the feathers : bastard-wing blackish, with sandy-buff margins ; 

 primary-coverts and quills blackish brown, edged with pale ashy 

 brown, hoary whitish on the primaries, the first primary white 

 along the edge of the inner web ; the secondaries broadly margined 

 with sandy rufous : tail-feathers blackish brown, with ashy-fulvous 

 edges, the penultimate feather with a very narrow fringe of isabel- 

 line along the outer web, sometimes extending roimd the tip of the ' 

 inner web ; otherwise the penultimate feather is blackish ; outer 

 feather diagonally blackish on the inner web, the shaft dark brown, 

 the outer web pale isabelline buff for its entire extent, somewhat 

 paler towards the end, the inner web diagonally pale isabelline for 

 its terminal third, becoming whiter towards the tip ; head like the 

 back, but slightly more mottled with blackish centres to the feathers ; 

 eyelid and a distinct eyebrow yellowish white ; lores ashy ; ear- 

 coverts sandy rufous, with whitish shaft-lines ; below the eye some 

 dusky feathers ; cheeks yellowish buff, followed by a distinct mous- 

 tachial line of black ; throat white, washed with pale sandy on the 

 lower part : sides of neck sandy buff, mottled with dusky bases to 

 the feathers ; under surface of body from the fore neck downwards 

 pale isabelline buff, deeper and more sandy buff on the sides of the 

 body, thighs, and under tail-coverts ; the fore neck very distinctly 

 spotted with blackish, the sides of the upper breast streaked with 

 brown shaft-lines ; under wing-coverts and axillaries pale sandy 

 buff, the latter with a distinct shade of olive ; quills dusky below, 

 ashy fulvous along the inner web. Total length 7'5 inches, 

 culmen 0*7, wing 3-9, tail 3-1, tarsus 1*05. 



A specimen from Mr. Andersson's last collection, which was 

 probably obtained at Ondonga (as the ticket attached to it was the 

 same as that which the Ovampo-Land specimens bore), is ajiparently 

 in breeding-plumage. It differs from the specimen described 

 in being altogether more rufous, with the feathers much worn (so 

 that the mesial black markings on the dorsal plumage stand out in 

 bolder relief), in the strongly-marked mystacal line of black, and 

 in the less distinct spots on the chest. 



This species is of about the same size and appearance as A. jyyr- 

 rJionotus, but is mottled with dark centres to the feathers of the upper 

 surface. In the tail, however, lies the chief difference. The outer 

 feather has the outer web whitish for the most part, but is brown along 

 the inner web, this colour running obliquely from the base upwards. 

 The penultimate feather is almost entirely brown, with a narrow 



