RHODONESSA CARYOPHYLLACEA 51 



inner web and inner primaries Ijuff; tertials glossy chocolate-brown, 

 narrowly edged with black on tlic outer web ; under wing-coverts and quills 

 beneath pale pink colour, with a satin lustre; tail chocolate-brown." 

 (Siilraflori.) 



In Jerdon and Barnes (Appendix, Jerdon), in loc. cit. we find tho 

 additions " edge of the wing whitish, uppermost tertiaries rich glossy 

 green." 



This is right, and is shown in Hume and Marshall's plate, but the 

 average bird has not so bright or liglit a green and has it even more glossy. 



The depth of the brown varies a good deal, and I am inclined to think 

 that it is owing to age, very old birds being the darkest, nearly black. 

 Condition of plumage in this, as in every other species of l)rown or black 

 bird, has a good deal to do with the colour, and Ijrown in old plumage is 

 always much duller and paler than in the fresh. I have certain spine-tail 

 swifts which show a mixture of quite light brown feathers with new black 

 ones glossed with blue, the former being merely old ones from which the 

 colouring matter has become exhausted. 



Colours of soft parts.—" Bill reddish-white, rosy at tlie base and bluish 

 at the tip, irides fine orange-red, legs and feet blackish, with a tinge of 

 red." {Jerdon.) 



"Bill dirty red, cere flesh-coloured, irides deep orange-red, legs and 

 feet reddish-slate." {ShilUngfoid.) 



Of another he notes : — 



"Bill light-pink, assuming a purplish-tint towards gonys, cere flesh- 

 coloured, irides deep orange, tarsus, web and nails dark slate, inclining to 

 purple, lower mandible more deeply coloured than upper." 



The following note of my own may explain Shillingford's " cere." 

 " Bill dull reddish-pink, deeper on mandible and darker still on gonys, the 

 base of both mandibles, more especially the maxilla near the forehead, pure 

 and brighter pink." Tltis note teas taken fvovi an adult nude. Inglis 

 describes the soft parts from a live bird in his possession : — 



" Bill light pink, pinker at tip on nail, base of maxilla and whole lower 

 mandible flesh-coloured, the colour being on some skins half an inch broad 

 (the cere) at the base of the maxilla, edge of nostrils black, iris light-red, 

 legs and feet reddish-black, rim round eyelids flesh-coloured." 



Measurements.—" Length about 2i inches, wing 10'5, tail 4"25, culmen 

 2"1, tarsus 1'6." (Salvadori.) 



Female. — " Similar to the male, but duller and paler, and more of a 

 smoky -brown ; the pink of the head is dingier and paler, and tliere is a 

 broad brown medial band from forehead over crown and occiput, and 

 (diminishing rapidly in width) on the back of the upper neck ; but the most 

 conspicuous difference is that the dull pink of the face runs on, unbroken, 

 over the entire chin and throat, so that there is no trace of the dark band 

 along chin and throat so conspicuous in the male." (Salvadori.) 



The colours of the soft parts in the female seem to differ in being all of 



