AND SOUTH WESTERN AFUICA. 217 



with pure white tips to the two outermost pairs of tail- 

 feathers amongst them , though all other stages are repre- 

 sented , from the full-sized but dirty white spots until 

 down to the specimens where the white tips are entirely 

 wanting. The white terminal patches seem to get developed, 

 as well as the white cross-bars on the quills , by moulting 

 and grow continually larger until they have reached their 

 full size, but whenever such a feather gets lost, the new 

 one has the white patch in its full extent, as clearly can 

 be demonstrated in some of the specimens before me. The 

 specimens in which the white cross-bar on the four first 

 primaries is wanting , have the latter , with the exception 

 of the terminal part, regularly barred with many rusty- 

 red bands, especially the innermost, while on the third and 

 second the rufous patches on the outer and inner web do 

 not correspond with each other, and the first primary 

 has only the inner web barred. The last cross-bars on the 

 inner web of the three first primaries have very early the 

 tendency of growing larger and continually increase in 

 size, while the next ones become smaller and by and by 

 disappear entirely, giving way for the dark ashy brown 

 ground-color of the quills. The same tendency can be ob- 

 served on the last spot of the outer web , which , though 

 not as early and rapidly as that on the inner, grows lar- 

 ger until it is developed to a band which afterwards unites 

 with that on the inner web to an oblique cross-bar. The 

 patch across the inner web begins sometimes very early to 

 become white in the centre, which grows continually 

 until the whole spot is pure white. The corresponding spot 

 on the outer web is much slower in changing into white, 

 and the last remainders of the red color will disappear 

 very late. There are , however , perhaps more than in any 

 other species , individual exceptions from the rule. So I 

 have before me , for instance , a specimen in which there 

 is but a faint trace of a rufous spot on the outer web of 

 the second primary — the first has no spot on the outer 

 web — while that on the inner is fully developed and 



Notes from the Leyden M.useum, 'Vol. X. 



