BAMBUSICOLA. 81 



the ear coverts to the nape ; chin, throat, cheeks, ear coverts, sides of the neck 

 and basal portion of the back of the neck rich bright ferruginous, spotted 

 everywhere except on the chin and throat with velvetty black, a band of which 

 clearly defines the ferruginous across the base of the throat. Immediately 

 above this black band, in the centre of the base of the neck in front, is a 

 conspicuous pure white patch, about o*8 inch long and 0*35 to o"4 deep. 

 Below the black band, the breast and sides of the breast are rich slightly 

 ferruginous maroon ; on either side of the upper portion of the throat a very 

 narrow mandibular white stripe, about 0-6 inch long, runs down from the base 

 of the lower mandible ; above this a black line, beginning under the posterior 

 portion of the lores, runs under the eye ; the abdomen and rest of the lower 

 parts pale slaty grey, rather sullied, and in some lights slightly brownish, and 

 many of the feathers with a small irregular central white spot near the tip. 

 The flank feathers (where the white spots are largest and most conspicuous) 

 tinged or margined with rusty or ferruginous chestnut ; the vent and lower 

 tail coverts strongly tinged with dull olive, the coverts, moreover, having the 

 white spot nearer the tips more or less expanded into a bar, and here 

 and there a little tinged with rusty ; wing lining about the carpal joint a 

 rich hair brown ; the rest a pale grey brown (much the colour of the lower 

 surface of the quills), a little tipped with white. Upper back and intcr- 

 scapulary region plain olive, a little slaty in some lights towards the bases 

 of the feathers, some of the feathers very narrowly and inconspicuously fringed 

 with black ; lower back, rump and upper tail coverts rather browner and brighter 

 olive, some of the feathers very narrowly fringed with black and most of them 

 with conspicuous hastate subterminal velvet black spots; coverts and scapulars 

 and tips of tertiaries similar (the black spots varying in shape from a sort of 

 lunule on the scapulars to the linear lanceolate dash on some of the coverts), 

 but the feathers more or less tinged towards the margins with deep ferruginous ; 

 the primaries plain, uniform hair brown ; secondaries similar, but freckled 

 and mottled more or less on the outer webs and at the tips with ferruginous. 

 {Hume, Game Birds.) The soft parts are not described. 



Length. — 8*5 inches; wing 5; tarsus l'^ ; bill from gape 09; bill at 

 front 0*65 ; tail 1-5. 



Hab. — The Bhootan Doars. Nothing is known of its habits, though it may 

 be presumed that they do not differ materially from those of its congeners. 



Gen. Bambusicola. 



General characters as in Arboricola ; wings short and rounded ; male tarsi 

 spurred. 



105. Bambusicola Fytcllii, Anderson, Vunfian Exped. ; Hnme, 

 Sir. F iii, p. 399; id., v. p. 493 ; Hume and Marsh., Game Birds ii. p. 97 ; 

 Murray, Avif. Brit. Ind. ii. p. 5S9, No. 1228.— The Western Bamboo 

 Partridge. 



11 B 



