43 Mr. 11. B. Sharpe on the Genus Glaucidium. 



tied with fulvous spots. Upper tail-coverts more rufous than 

 the back, Ijut mottled with fulvous like the latter. J'ail regu- 

 larly and completely banded with rufous and dark brown, with 

 a slight tip of white. Riifous bands on tail* ten in the male, 

 eleven in some females, but ten also in this sex sometimes ; 

 all the bands regular and completely traversing the tail-fea- 

 thers, the rufous ones narrower than the brown interspaces. 

 Head striped or spotted with rufous-buff, as the case may be. 

 Sides of upper breast strongly mottled with Avhitish spots or 

 bars. 



Young. Head nearly uniform ashy brown, scantily streaked 

 with ochraceous buff. Tail as in adult. Under surface more 

 clouded Avith ashy brown than in the old bird. The sides of 

 the breast streaked and spotted with rufous buflF. 



I do not see any difficulty in understanding the sequence 

 of plumage in this species, which appears to be an orthodox 

 Glaucidium, like G. passerinum. The tail is marked alike at 

 all ages, just as in G. passerinum ; but the head is uniform 

 greyish brown in the young (one of Mr. Salvin^s specimens 

 has not yet got its full-grown tail), with a few streaks on the 

 crown, which are much more strongly developed in the rufous- 

 brown plumage, which I take to be the next stage towards 

 maturity ; and, lastly, these streaks dilate into spots, which are 

 characteristic of the adult stage. As a rule, the rufous tail- 

 bands are narrower than the dark brown ones; but in the 

 typical example, and in another from South America, in the 

 British Museum, they are about equal in breadth. Mr. Kidg- 

 way will see that the fact I have mentioned about this species 

 having both a dotted and a striped head, militates against his 

 primary division. 



Total 

 length. 



1. ? ad. Rio Negi-o {Hudson) 8-6 



2. S ad. „ „ 7-5 



3. c? uiJ- Santiago, Cliili (P. S^- L.) .... 73 



4. § ad. „ „ „ .... 8-5 



* In enumerating these, the base of the feather, which is alwaj's light, 

 is nut counted, but the terminal or subtermiual band is included. 



