MIRAFRA AFRICANA. 521 
margin ; throat white, the rest of the under surface isabelline buff, 
washed with bright fawn colour, minutely spotted with dark brown 
on the lower throat and chest, and streaked with the same on the 
sides of the breast; under wing-coverts entirely rich fawn colour, 
a little brighter than the inner lining of the wing, which is rufous 
and very conspicuous; ‘‘upper mandible dusky, lower mandible 
pale ; tarsi and feet pale ; iris hight hazel ” (Ayres). 
Total length, 7 inches; culmen, 0°8; wing, 4:0; tail, 3:0; 
tarsus, 1°3. 
Adult female.—Smaller than male, and with a much thinner bill. 
Total length, 6°8 inches; culmen, 0°75; wing, 3°5; tail, 2:7; 
tarsus, 1°2. 
Winter plumage.—Much darker brown than in summer, and not 
nearly so rufous on the upper surface, the rufous of the crown 
entirely obscured by the broad dark brown shaft-stripes, and the 
forehead entirely brown, shaded with ashy and slightly tinged with 
rufous; the hinder back and rump decidedly shaded with ashy ; 
below rather more richly coloured than in summer, the breast largely 
marked with triangular spots of dark brown; hind neck decidedly 
more ashy, separating the head from the back. 
Young.—Obseure brown, with hardly any rufous shade above; 
the hind neck washed with ashy fulvous, all the feathers very broadly 
black in the centre, and subterminally barred with a crescentic black 
line, very conspicuous before the fulyous tips to the feathers, more 
distinct on the wing-coverts, which incline to light fawn colour; 
quills much as in adult, and rufous at base, the inner secondaries 
dark brown, with a distinct ashy whitish margin, before which runs 
another subterminal line of black ; tail brown, shaded with ashy on 
the margins of the feathers, the external web of the outer tail-feather 
creamy white, the penultimate one broadly margined with the same ; 
over the eye a broad superciliary streak of creamy buff; lores and 
sides of face buffy white, the cheeks thickly spotted with black, 
the ear-coverts washed with rufous; throat white, with a few tiny 
specks of brown on the lower part: rest of under surface isabelline 
fulvyous, the breast washed with fawn rufous and mottled with 
rufous brown bars, some of the new triangular-spotted feathers just 
appearing. 
Fig. Smith, Ill. Zool. S. Afr. Aves, pl. lxxxvii, fig. 1. 
