348 Mr. T. Ayres on the 



210. iEoiALiTEs TRicoLLARis (Vicill.). Three-collarcd 

 Plover. 



The specimen sent was shot on 24th March. 



Balearica regulorum, Licht. Southern Crowned Crane. 



Immature. This and three other young birds of the same 

 agCj and evidently from the same nest, were feeding together 

 in a bit of swampy ground. 



[This specimen, which was nearly full-grown, had the irides 

 light ash-colour ; the bill black, but with the base of the lower 

 mandible pale ; the bare skin between the bill and the eye 

 black, the adjacent space, which is occupied by the wattles in 

 the adult, thickly clothed with short yellowish white down ; 

 and the legs and feet ashy black. Its plumage differs from 

 that of the adult bird in the following particulars : — The front 

 part of the head, instead of being black, as in the adult, is 

 a rich fulvous, with a very few small black spots intermixed ; 

 the crest, which is about half-grown, the back of the head, 

 and the upper part of the neck and throat are of a similar 

 hue ; but the colour, especially on the neck and throat, is paler 

 than on the forehead, and is varied on the sides of the neck 

 by the dark bases of the feathers being apparent ; the mantle 

 is slaty black, with narrow tips to the feathers, some of these 

 tips being rufous, others (especially those nearest the wings) 

 being pale brown ; the wing-coverts are Avhite, but with most 

 of the feathers variegated by a subterminal slate-coloured 

 mark and a much narrower rufous brown tip, and with the 

 further exception of the coverts of the tertials, in which each 

 feather is wholly banded with alternate transverse bars of 

 slate-colour and rufous ; on the bastard wing the feathers are 

 more slate-coloured than in the adult, but have not also, as 

 in the adult, a tinge of rufous ; the lower back is of a dark 

 slate-colour intermingled with white, and with rufous tips to 

 those feathers which lie nearest to the thighs and upper tail- 

 coverts, the latter of which are black, tipped with fulvous ; 

 the under tail-coverts are composed of long downy feathers 

 of a pale buff-colour, transversely barred with dull black, the 

 abdomen and thighs are pale buff, slightly mingled Avith black ; 



