77 
brown, the feathers darker shafted, vent and lower tail coverts yel- 
lowish white, some of the exterior of the latter only sparsely blotch- 
ed with pale brown. The lower wing coverts and axillaries are 
mingled brown and white, but whereas in the young, the brown 
greatly predominated, in the adult the white is in excess. The 
tail feathers are now all distinctly tipped with white, except per- 
haps the two centre ones, and all the feathers, but the centre 
ones, are distinctly marked on the inner webs to the very points, 
by ill-defined bars of a paler hue, in most specimens, greyish 
white tinged with rufous near the shaft. On the outer webs, of, 
at least, the three outer tail feathers on each side, there are usually 
paler spots corresponding to the bars on the inner webs. ‘The 
legs and feet as well as the cere, have changed from a greenish 
hue to bright yellow. The iris, which in the young is often pale 
brown or brownish yellow, assumes in the adult its perfect rich 
brown tint. 
Between these two states of plumage every possible gradation 
is observable. Gradually as the bird grows older, the white of 
the forehead becomes more conspicuous and the head more rufous. 
The spots on the ear coverts and throat gradually disappear, 
the cheek stripe grows shorter, the breast, then the abdomen be- 
come successively mottled with white, then white with conspi- 
cuous drops of brown, and lastly as in the adult, almost pure 
white. The upper plumage passes from a rich or umber (?) 
brown to almost a slaty grey, the under wing coverts and axil- 
laries become more and more barred and mottled with white, 
while even the thigh coverts, participating in the general change 
of hue, pass from a deep rich burnt umber to a pale greyish 
brown. ‘he intensity of the colours varies much in different 
individuals, some are in all stages less rufous on the head and 
less slaty on the upper plumage than others, and in some the 
dark colour of the base of, and back of neck is very much darker 
than others of apparently the same age. With an enormous 
series before me, I cannot discover any sexual difference of plu- 
mage: just as many of the females as of the males have very 
rufous heads; just as many are very grey; just as many have 
very dark patches in the hind neck, and just as many of each 
seem to be less rufous, less grey, and less dark on the neck. In 
the young, the colour of the legs and feet vary, from pale plum- 
beous to dull greenish grey, in the adult from full wax yellow 
to a bright almost orange yellow. ‘The claws are a horny black. 
The legs and feet do not appear to assume their bright yellow 
hue, until almost all the brown has disappeared from the throat 
and breast. ‘The cere and gape are dingy greenish grey, or at 
times pale plumbeous in the young, bright yellow in the adult, 
