4 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



verse bands of velvet black, divided by yellowish or rufous lines. A 

 deep rufous-brown, almost black, line running from the base of the 

 bill to the corner of the eye ; a second similar line below eye and 

 posterior ear-coverts ; ear-coverts and cheeks grey, with numerous 

 rufous-brown spots. Upper parts and wing coverts rufous- grey with 

 numerous bars of brown and rufous ; the lesser wing coverts brown 

 and rufous only and the scapulars broadly black on the inner and 

 white, yellowish white, or pale grey on the outer webs. The primary 

 coverts are rufous with bars of grey, finely edged with dark brown. 

 The primaries and outer secondaries brown, the latter notched on 

 the outer webs with rufous, the notches being palest on the outer- 

 most feathers. The quills are also margined with pale rufous at 

 the tips. The inner secondaries are barred right across with alter- 

 nate bands, broad of brown and narrow of rufous. Eump and upper 

 tail coverts barred rufous and black or rufous and brown ; as a rule 

 in the longest coverts the terminal half is almost pure rufous. 



Tail-feathers dark brown or black, notched or barred with rufous 

 and tipped grey above and broadly silver-grey below. 



Chin white or nearly so, remainder of lower parts dull greyish 

 white, barred throughout with narrow rufescent bars which become 

 darker and more numerous on the upper breast, often running into 

 one another and forming dark patches. On the abdomen and flanks 

 posteriorly, the bars are sometimes centred with a paler tint. 



The Adult Female does not differ from the male in plumage. 

 " The female is larger with the colours more dull " (Jerdon). "Males 

 have .... the back more of the pale brown and grey, and the 

 rump less red than the female." (Yarrell), i.e., Yarrell makes out 

 the female to be a more rufous bird than the male. 



Young Birds. — " Differ from the adult in being darker and having 

 creamy-whitish, instead of ashy, spots at the end of the dorsal and 

 scapular feathers ; the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are 

 plainly barred across with dusky brown, and the tail feathers are 

 not largely notched with sandy brown on their margins, but have a 

 narrow sub-terminal line of sandy buff between the ashy tip and the 

 black of the rest of the feathers. The outer web of the primaries 

 has a distinct series of fulvous notches." {Sharpe). 



The question of the alleged differences in the young bird have 



