576 MOTACILLID^, 



patch for two thirds of the inner web along its edge, the penulti- 

 mate tail-feather also for the most part white, but having the dusky 

 patch on the inner web darker and extending nearer to the tip, the 

 shaft of this feather being blackish ; head and neck clear sandy brown, 

 mottled with blackish centres to the feathers, like the back ; lores 

 dusky ; a well-defiued eyebrow of yellowish buff ; ear-coverts clear 

 sandy brown, darker on the upper margin ; cheeks yellowish buff, 

 separated from the whitish throat by an indistinct mystacal line 

 of black ; lower throat, fore neck, breast, and flanks bright sandy 

 buff, a little browner on the latter ; centre of the breast and abdo- 

 men isabelline white ; on the lower throat and fore neck some very 

 distinct longitudinal spots of black ; thighs and under tail-coverta 

 pale sandy buff ; under wing-coverts smoky brown, the lower ones 

 slightly tinged with sandy buif ; axillaries smoky brown, with sandy- 

 buff margins ; quUls below dusky brown, inner edges ashy fulvous : 

 " bill brown, with the basal portion of the lower mandible ilesh- 

 colour ; legs and feet yellowish clay-colour ; iris brown " (Beid), 

 Total length 6-5 inches, culmeu 0-6, wing 3-5, tail 2-5, tarsus 1*1. 



Young. General colour above Lark-like, the feathers brown, with 

 pale sandy-buff or whitish edges, the hind neck rather paler and 

 more varied with sandj'-buff margins to the feathers ; rump rather 

 more rufescent ; wing-coverts and quUls dark brown, broadly edged 

 with sandy buff, inclining to sandy rufous on the bastard-wing, 

 primary-coverts, and quills, the inner greater coverts and secondaries 

 edged and tipped with whitish ; tail-feathers dark brown, the centre 

 cues broadly edged with sandy buff, the penultimate feather almost 

 entirely dark brown, excepting for an external border of sandy 

 rufous and a small wedge-shaped mark of the same at the end of 

 the inner web ; the outer tail-feather entirely pale sandy rufous, 

 including the shaft, the inner web obliquely dark brown for two 

 thirds of its length ; a distinct eyebrow of duU white, as well as 

 the eyelid ; in front of the eye a dusky spot : cheeks and ear- 

 covert's pale sandy buff, browner along the upper edge of the latter ; 

 a broad mystacal line of dark brown ; throat dull white ; remainder 

 of under surface of body sandy buff, the chest and fore neck thickly 

 spotted with dark brown ; thighs and under tail-coverts like the 

 breast and abdomen ; axillaries and under wing-coverts sandy ru- 

 fous ; quUls dusky brown below, rufescent along the inner web. 



The winter plumage is much more ashy than the summer dress, 

 which is assumed by a direct moult, and the appearance of the bird 

 becomes everywhere more tawny. The pale edges to the feathers 

 become very much worn during the nesting-season, so much so that 

 occasionally the upper surface appears almost uniform, and the spots 

 on the breast, though small, are very distinct ; in the winter plumage 

 the latter are rather obscured. I believe that the young birds in 

 their first winter plumage are much more tawny than the adult 

 specimens. 



With regard to the dusky outer web of the penultimate feather, 

 alluded to below, it is evident that this is a sign of age and that it 

 gradually disappears. A specimen from Nepal has the white on 



