INSESSORES. 617 



brown, with the inner webs of the wing and tail-feathers 

 reheved by bars and markings of white ; the immature 

 colouring, on the contrary, presents a variegated and very 

 diversified character, which, owing to the constant change 

 taking place, cannot be described so as to render it clear to 

 my readers. When the young leaves the nest, the throat, 

 face, and shoulders are black, the feathers of the remainder 

 of the body crossed and spotted with buff; the black colouring 

 gradually gives place to the grey of the under surface, while 

 the bufFy marks of the upper surface are retained even after 

 the second or third moult ; it breeds in this state, and it is 

 doubtful whether in the female it is ever entirely cast off. 



The stomachs of those dissected were found to be capacious, 

 membranous, and thickly lined with hair. 



The egg is about seven-eights of an inch long by five-eighths 

 broad, and is of a cream-colour, speckled all over with markings 

 of brown. 



The adult male has the head, neck, and all the under surface 

 brownish grey, with a streak of dark brown down the sides of 

 the neck ; all the upper surface olive-brown, becoming much 

 darker on the wings and tail; basal portion of the inner webs 

 of the primaries broadly barred with white ; tail-feathers barred 

 on the margins of both webs with white, slightly on the outer 

 and deeply on the inner ; all the feathers tipped with white, 

 and with a mark of white on the stem near the tip, this mark 

 being very small on the central tail-feather, and gradually 

 increasing on the lateral feathers until on the outer it forms a 

 band ; under-irides very dark brown ; eyelash yellow ; gape 

 and inside of the mouth rich deep orange ; feet olive. 



The female differs in having the upper surface mottled with 

 buff and rufous, in having a triangular spot of reddish buff at 

 the extremity of each of the wing-coverts, and the markings of 

 the tail buff instead of white; all which markings may in 

 very old birds give place to a style of colouring similar to the 

 male. 



