314 OTIDID^. 



upper tail-coverts, more ashj', freckled with black, and crossed with 

 black bars ; aU the wing-coverts pure white, the inner median 

 coverts greyish, freckled with blackish lines ; all the outer coverts 

 black, the innermost of the median series white, freckled with 

 black ; greater coverts yellowish buff, white at the ends , and 

 freckled with black lines, occasionally forming cross-bars ; the 

 innermost greater coverts ashy freckled with black on the inner 

 web, white on the outer web like the adjacent median coverts; 

 primary-coverts and quills ochreous, tipped with white, the feathers 

 uniform towards the base, but freckled with black towards the 

 ends, and crossed by two, or at the most three, black bands ; inner 

 secondaries more like the back, but banded with black ; head and 

 neck all round, as well as the underparts of the body, jetr-black, in- 

 cluding the decorative plumes of the neck ; between the hind neck 

 and the mantle a broad band of white descending on to the sides of 

 the chest ; chin and upper throat white ; some of the longer under 

 tail-coverts white or sandy buff, mottled with black ; under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries black : " the bill pale yellow, somewhat 

 fleshy towards gape, the ridge, tip, and more or less of the upper 

 surface shaded with dusky horny brown ; the legs pale, somewhat 

 fleshy yellow, sometimes hoary, sometimes more dusky ; iris dull 

 yellow, sometimes very pale, sometimes brownish " (A. 0. Hume). 

 Total length 15 inches, culmen 1'5, wing 7*9, tail 3"5, tarsus 3"5. 



Adult female. Differs from the male in being much more rufous 

 above, the spear-shaped markings wider than in the male and much 

 more of a sandy buff; tail also not so ashy as in the male, more 

 sandy coloured, but similarly barred and vermiculated with black ; 

 wings as in the male, except that the coverts which are white in 

 the latter are pale sandy buff in the female, with a few black bars 

 and scanty vermiculations ; no white collar across the mantle ; the 

 hind neck entirely sandy buff with very minute frecklings ; crown 

 of head tawny biiff in the centre with a broad black band on each 

 side ; the nape tawny, streaked with black ; lores, eyebrow, and 

 sides of face sandy buff, with a few black shaft-streaks and a black 

 streak under the eye ; throat white, the lower throat and remainder 

 of underparts sandy buff, isabelline on the breast and abdomen ; on 

 each side of the throat a long black line of feathers, the fore neck 

 broadly streaked with black ; the breast somewhat mottled with 

 black vermiculations, these extending on to the feathers of the sides 

 of the body ; under tail-coverts tawny buff, with irregular bars of 

 black ; axillaries black, very slightly mottled with sandy buff; the 

 lower major and primary-coverts also blackish, the former with 

 sandy-buff tips ; rest of the under wing-coverts isabellire. Total 

 length about 19 inches, culmen 1*75, wing 8-8, taU 4*2, tarsus 3-6. 



Young male. At first resembles the female in colour, but gradu- 

 ally assumes the plumage of the male, apparently by a change in the 

 pattern of the feather as well as by a moult. 



Hab. Peninsula of India. Mr. Hume writes : — " I do not, as at 

 present informed, consider that either Beluchistan, the Punjab, the 

 N.W. Provinces, north and east of the Jumna, Oudh, Chota Nagpoor, 



