590 MOTACIILID^. 



long secondaries, which are again considerably shorter than the 

 longest primaries. Primaries emarginate, 2, 3,4. Outstretched feet 

 (in skin) reaching a little beyond half the taU. 



Adult male in hreeding-plumage. General colour above ashy, 

 streaked with black in the centre of the feathers, the head more 

 narrowly, the hind nock less distinctly, and the back very broadly ; 

 the back and mantle mottled with edges of ashy white, faintly 

 tinged vrith oUve ; rump more uniform olive-brown ; upper tail- 

 coverts dusky brown, edged with ashy fulvous ; lesser wing-coverts 

 dark brown, strongly washed with olive-yellow ; median and greater 

 coverts blackish brown, edged with fulvous or olive-brown and 

 tipped with duU white ; bastard-wing dark brown, edged with 

 ashy ; primary-coverts and quiQs dusky brown, margined with 

 olive-yellowish, the secondaries with whity-browu, whiter on the 

 inner secondaries, which are blackish ; upper taU-eoverts and taU 

 blackish brown, edged with ashy or olive-brown ; penultimate 

 feather with a white spot at the tip of the outer web, the outer 

 feather white, smoky brown towards the end of the outer web, the 

 inner one with a broad oblique mark of blackish brown ; eyelid and 

 a broad eyebrow, running from the base of the nostrils to above the 

 ear-coverts, dull white with a fulvous tinge ; lores blackish ; ear- 

 coverts dusky blackish, mottled with white below the eye ; cheeks, 

 throat, and breast pale vinous ; abdomen, vent, and under taU- 

 coverts dull white ; sides of body and flanks dull whitish, washed 

 with olive and broadly streaked with black ; axillaries pale olive- 

 yellow ; under wing-coverts dull white, washed with yellow and 

 mottled near the edge of the wing with dusky bases ; quills dusky 

 below, pale ashy along the inner web : " bill dusky, blackish on the 

 culmen and fleshy brown at the base of the lower mandible ; feet 

 brownish fleshy, the claws dusky ; iris dark brown " {Sadly). 

 Total length 5-7 inches, culmen 0*55, wing 3'45, tail 2-45, tarsus 0'8. 



Adult female in hreeding-plumage. Similar in colour to the male, 

 but with remains of a few obsolete blackish streaks on the fore 

 neck. Total length 5*9 inches, culmen 0-5, wing 3'1, tail 2'35, 

 tarsus 0-8. 



Owing to the absence of properly dated sj^ecimens, I am unable 

 to follow the present species through all its changes of plumage. 

 It appears to have a perfectly distinct winter plumage, when the 

 under surface is thickly spotted with black, and in which it some- 

 what resembles the winter dress of A. macxd<ttus and A. trivialis. 

 The sulphur-yellow axiUaries, however, are always strongly pro- 

 nounced, and the shape of the hind claw also distiuguishes it from 

 the two above-mentioned species at aU ages. 



A specimen killed at Etawah in March is moulting from the 

 spotted dress into the summer rufous-throated stage ; but in some 

 individuals it would appear as if the colour of the feather changed 

 to rosy without an actual moult. The Museum series, however, 

 is not extensive enough to determine the sequence of plumages 

 satisfactorily. 



Hah. Himalayan region from Afghanistan to Bootan and the 



