367 
January, and in the lower valleys of Gurhwal, according to Mr. 
Rt. Thompson, may be met with as late as the end of May. 
side of which it almost seems to run, since a portion of the inner web of the 
longest and the outer webs of some of the shorter are buffy or buffy white. 
The rest of the egrets (which are some 23 long) are a rather darker brown 
than the top of the head. The sides of the head and upper part of sides of 
neck for about 1 inch behind the dark brown band are mingled buff, buffy 
white and brown, no colour showing clearly, but the feathers if closely 
examined, are mostly buff at the base, and whitish towards their extremi- 
ties where there are 2 or 3 narrow, wavy, brown, transverse bars. The 
chin is occupied by a dense tuft of feathers similar to those of the lores, (but 
entirely white) which curve out quite to the end of the lower mandible. There 
is a similar tuft on each side of the lower mandible, and a line of similar feathers 
round the gape, and running up (overhung and nearly hidden by the buffy, 
or brownish white feathers below the eye) to the lores; from where the 
narrow dark brown line terminates a little below the gape, a broad, irregular 
band of buffy feathers with darker or lighter brown central streaks runs right 
across the throat, separating the white of the chin from a pure white, some- 
what triangular patch in the centre of the throat or upper neck in front. 
The feathers of the rest of the neck all round are a rich buff colour with 
more or less white towards the tips, and conspicuous, broader or narrower, 
central stripes of dark brown. The upper back, shoulders, scapulars, median, 
secondary and tertiary greater coverts, are brown, varying somewhat in 
shade but still dark, with two or more, mottled, or even freckled pairs of 
large spots or incomplete bars, ef white, buff or buffy white. The tertiaries 
are similar, but having a much lighter and more rufous ground colour, and 
more of the mottled incomplete bars. The extreme edge of the wing is white, 
and the immediately adjoining feathers much mottled, with a rich buff, but the 
lesser wing coverts asa whole are a rich dark brown, towards the tips (which 
alone show) with only one or two pairs of rather small, buff, or fulvous white, 
irregular, marginal spots, and this is the character of the winglet. The greater 
coverts of the primaries are a rich rufous buff at the base, and dusky brown 
at the tip, the centres banded with freckled and mottled bars of both colours. 
The primaries are the same rich rufous buff, tipped with a lighter shade of 
dusky brown, which tips are much longer in the first than in the succeeding 
primaries. The first two primaries have the whole outer webs banded brown 
and rufous buff, freckled with brown, but in the succeeding primaries the rufous 
buff above the tips is nearly pure except for two or three, narrow, brown, bands 
towards the end on the outer, and one or two similar ones on the inner webs. 
The dusky tips themselves are a good deal banded and freckled, especially 
towards the secondaries, which want the well marked dusky tips, and, with a 
less pure rufous buff ground, have about four or five brown bars on the outer 
and three or four on the inner webs, the interspaces on the outer webs being a 
good deal dashed with white and mottled and freckled with brown. The central 
tail feathers resemble the outer webs of the later secondaries, the lateral ones 
their inner webs. The brown bars growing narrower and narrower on each 
succeeding feather, as they recede from the centre. The second primary is 
clearly and the third slightly emarginate on the outer web, and the three first, 
the first especially, are conspicuously notched on the inner webs, The inner 
surface of the quills except at the tips or where the bars show through, is a 
delicate, pale, rufous buff, almost salmon colour, as are also the larger lower 
primary coverts, which have dusky tips. The edge of the wing, as above noticed, 
is white, the rest of the wing lining is rufous buff, the median lower coverts 
