388 A Description of the Birds 
the feathers of the neck and nape each with a spot of brown 
at tips; interscapulars and back dirty brown; upper tail 
coverts brown, with the tips pale tawny; throat, sides of 
neck, and anterior part of breast blackish brown; flanks, 
belly, thighs, and vent reddish brown, inclined to dirty ferru 
ginous; shoulders variegated brown and pale tawny ; inside 
of wings dark tawny, spotted with brown. Primary and secon- 
dary wing coverts brown, with tawny tips; primary quill 
feathers dark brown, with the exception of the greater part of 
the inner vanes, towards quills, which are light tawny, varie- 
gated by longitudinal waved dusky lines; secondaries simi- 
larly colored. Tail nearly even, dark brown, with the three 
outermost feathers of each side distinctly marked by transverse 
interrupted tawny bands; centre ones with indistinct light 
colored bands on inner vanes ; tips of all the feathers tawny. 
Legs and toes greenish yellow; claws black. Length from 
bill to base of tail ten anda half inches ; length of latter eight 
inches. 
Female.—With the exception of being a little larger, she 
exactly resembles the male. 
Young.—When it leaves the egg, it is covered with a white 
down, that in time is succeeded by an uniform dark brown 
plumage, which is only very slightly variegated by some 
streaks of bright tawny about the chin, front, and anterior 
edges of shoulders. The brown of the upper parts is dark 
and clear; that of the lower reddish brown or ferruginous. 
Tail feathers nearly uniform brown, with tawny tips, and some 
similarly colored spots towards quills. Bill blackish blue, 
with the lower mandible yellow at base. Legs and toes dirty 
yellow. 
This bird is met with about the sandy flats near Cape Town, 
as well as in low marshy or damp situations along both the 
southern and western coasts. On account of its habitats and 
manners, it has generally been considered as identical with 
the last described species; but its constant and invariable 
characters prove it to be a separate and independent one. 
This is evidently the same species as is obscurely described by 
Le Vaillant, and stated by him to have been procured near 
Algoa Bay.* 
Obs.—The bands on the tail are much more distinct in some 
specimens than in others, and appear sometimes on all the 
feathers, at other times only on the inner vanes of the middle 
ones. In some examples the white of the front, nape, 
cervix, and breast, is clear and abundant, whilst in others it is 
scarcely distinguishable. 
* Histoire Naturelle des Oisseau d’ Afrique, tom. 1, p. 97, 
[52] 
