150 
dark brown, more or less conspicuously tipped with fulyous 
white, and with, or without, narrow, transverse, irregular, grey 
bands. 'The quills, and greater wing coverts, are dark brown ; 
the latter with the secondaries and tertiaries, broadly tipped 
with fulvous white; the greater lower wing coverts are pure 
white, or white mingled with brown, slightly darker than the 
rest of the wing lining. 
The specimens in this stage, vary greatly in the prevailing 
shade of brown, some are very pale, almost whity brown; others 
moderately pale hair brown; some are entirely destitute of bars 
on the tail; others, exhibit them conspicuously ; and in the 
specimens before me, the very lightest bird, and one of the 
darkest, have no bars whatsoever on the tail. The lower tail 
coverts, in almost all the specimens, are white, or slightly 
fulvous white; but in one specimen, they are mottled with the 
same brown as the rest of the lower parts. . 
In some, the pale tippings to the tail feathers, are obsolete, 
in others, conspicuous. The lesser, and median lower wing 
coverts, in one or two specimens, are narrowly tipped with 
white; generally, they are of the same uniform brown, as the 
breast, abdomen, etc. In both these forms, the lower surface 
of the primaries, are but faintly mottled with greyish white. 
One specimen alone seems changing to the third form; in 
this the wing bands have nearly disappeared, the tail feathers 
show the irregular, narrow bars, more strongly than in any of 
the others; the whole of the brown is darker, the pale tipping 
of the tail, is almost obsolete; many of the median lower wing 
coverts, are rufous buff, and the longer scapulars, and a few of 
the feathers of the back are a deep chocolate brown. 
The 38rd stage is characteristically of a dark hair, or even at 
times, umber brown, darkest above, and chocolate brown, on 
the scapulars, with no pale bands on the wings, or tips to the 
tail feathers, and with numerous, narrow, transverse, irregular, 
grey bars on the latter; and with much brown, mingled with 
the lower tail coverts. 
Some specimens shew traces of the wing bars, characteristic 
of the preceding stage, but more of them shew a few reddish 
buff feathers on the nape, and pale margins to the lesser wing 
coverts, obviously incipient changes towards the perfect adult. 
A good many, which I suppose to be those nearest to the 
second form, besides showing traces of the wing bars, have all 
the feathers of the lower abdomen, narrowly tipped with ding 
fulvous white. 
‘Those again which appear to lead to the perfect stage, have the 
upper tail coverts dark brown, only slightly tipped with white. 
K 
