72 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



and that the wings reach up to or slightly beyond the ex- 

 tremity of the tail. 



Mr. Sharpe describes the " general plumage " of the young 

 birds of this species as ''black;" but in the youngest speci- 

 mens which I have seen its colour is dark brown, which sub- 

 sequently deepens into black in the intermediate stage, and 

 ultimately passes from black to slate-colour when the bird 

 assumes its fully adult dress ; the " rufous spots " on the sca- 

 pulars, and the similarly coloured margins of the lesser wing- 

 coverts, spoken of in Mr. Sharpens description of the " young " 

 bird, are indicative of the commencement of the second stage 

 of plumage, being absent in the first phase of coloration which 

 this species assumes ; the second plumage, when more com- 

 pletely developed, exhibits a deeper tint of rufous than exists 

 in the fully adult bird, and often extending over a large sca- 

 pulary area, the rufous feathers being also variegated, in this 

 stage, by broad blackish shaft-marks. 



Mr. Sharpe, in his description of the young bird, mentions 

 the lores as being " conspicuously white ;" this white, or yel- 

 lowish white spot, which I should rather describe as covering 

 the parotic region, seems always to disappear when the second 

 stage of plumage has been fully attained. 



Messrs. Salvin and Godman^s collection contains a speci- 

 men in the first stage of plumage from the Pacific slope of 

 Guatemala, in which the fuliginous colouring so greatly pre- 

 dominates over the fulvous on the under surface, as to be 

 almost unbroken from the chin to the vent ; but it is more 

 usual in individuals of that age to find the under surface more 

 or less variegated, as indicated by Mr. Sharpe. 



In describing the adult plumage, Mr. Sharpe alludes to the 

 axillaries as being " sometimes tinged with rufous." I have 

 never met Avith this in fully adult specimens ; but in the pen- 

 ultimate stage a rufous tinge more or less pervades not only 

 the axillaries, but also the under wing-coverts and the sides 

 of the body ; on all these parts the rufous tints are more or 

 less mingled with black, forming transverse bars of intermixed 

 dark coloration with white interspaces between them. At 

 this stage a somewhat similar transverse barring exists on the 



