399 
lined with leaves and straw. The eggs are pure white, glossy, 
and very spherical. 
equal width as far as the triangular tip, hastate at the base, and slightly 
divided at the tip. 
Plumage. (A female caught on her eggs at Puhpoondh, Zillah Etawah, . 
March 10th, 1867). A prominent tuft of disunited-webbed, bristly, white 
feathers (with dark naked tips to the shafts, and traces on those nearest the 
eye, of dark cross bars,) on each side of the upper mandible at its base. 
A faint tinge of buffy at the anterior angle of the eye, rest of lores, feathers 
below and behind eye, including ear coverts, loose webbed, silky, greyish white 
with traces of faint, minute, transverse, brown bars ; chin white, the feathers 
of the extreme tip somewhat bristly and curving upwards round lower man- 
dible. Across the throat and upwards immediately behind the ear orifice, 
as far as the base of the aigrettes, a band of creamy or pale buff feathers, 
with numerous, minute, transverse, wavy, brown pencillings and bars, those 
from the aigrettes to the sides of the throat with conspicuous, dark brown 
tippings, which form the defining line of the disk, and a few of those in the 
centre of the throat with similarly colored spots at the tips. Forehead and a 
broad supercilium running up the inside webs of the aigrette feathers, and a 
curved band at the back of the head, extending from the point of one aigrette, 
to the point of the other (when laid flat on the head), a silvery grey or 
greyish white, the feathers with dark brown shafts, and numerous, minute, 
transverse, pencillings of that colour, and some of them with terminal spots. 
Centre of forehead and top of head, a triangular space surrounded by this 
grey band, a rich dark brown, purest on the centre of the forehead, with 
small twin spots or imperfect transverse bars, and mottlings, to a greater or 
less extent, of pale buff. The outside webs of the aigrettes are similar, as are 
the feathers of the band, outside and contiguous to the curved grey band, 
which latter seems continuous with the dark line of the outer webs of the 
aigrette, while the former seems to start immediately above the centre of the 
eye. Below the dark band, at the base of the back of the neck, is another band 
of very similarly marked feathers, but whereas the dark brown predominates 
in the former, the buff much predominates in the latter. The back, rump, 
upper tail coverts, scapulars, wing coverts, except the greater ones of the 
primaries, a mixture of pale brownish grey, and pale buffy ; with dark brown, 
central streaks, and numerous, transverse, wavy, brown pencillings, and mot- 
tlings. In the outside line of the scapulars, the buff is very pure, and in 
some positions conspicuous, and while the rump, upper tail and lesser wing 
coverts are dingier and greyer, the centre of the upper back and the median 
and secondary wing coverts show more ofa pale buff. The primary greater 
coverts are very dark brown, with broad, transverse, buffy, mottled bars. 
The quills are darkish brown, with numerous, broad, transverse, greyish, more 
or less dingy, white bars, much more conspicuous on the outer webs ; with 
the exception of a few bars on the upper portion of the outer webs of the 
earlier primaries, which are unmottled and slightly tinged with creamy, all 
the rest of these bars are closely mottled and pencilled with brown. The 
second, third and fourth primaries are just perceptibly emarginate on the 
outer webs, and the first to the fourth are conspicuously notched on the 
inner webs, The sides of the neck behind the dark line, the breast, sides, 
abdomen and thigh coverts, a sort of creamy grey, very soft and silky, the 
feathers with narrow, rich, brown, central streaks, and numerous, minute, 
irregular, wavy, transverse pencillings. Greater portion of wing lining, vent 
feathers, and lower tail coverts, silky greyish white, the latter, some of them, 
