Mr. A. Hume on Indian Ornithology. 407 



where at the tips, and decreasing in extent in the hinder part 

 of the wing and towards the bases of the feathers. The second 

 primary, for instance, will be all brown, except a narrow rufous 

 edging for the basal two-thirds of the outer web and a broad 

 rufous stripe on the margin of the inner web for the same 

 distance, while one of the later secondaries will be all rufous, 

 except a narrow brown stripe running down the shaft till within 

 one-third of the end of the feather, whence it gradually widens 

 so as to occupy at the tip the whole of both webs. The rump 

 and upper tail-coverts are much the same as the back, but in 

 some specimens slightly more rufous than the lower back, and 

 the longest of the coverts are in some specimens very narrowly 

 tipped with very pale fulvous-white. The tail is hair-brown, 

 darker than the brown portion of the quills, all the feathers 

 externally very narrowly margined with pale rufous, except the 

 external feather on each side, which has the whole outer web of 

 that colour. The throat and upper breast are greyish-white or 

 grey, with more or less numerous and conspicuous black median 

 stripes on the feathers. Specimens differ widely in this respect : 

 in some the greyish-white is a mere edging to dusky black fea- 

 thers ; in others only a few black spots and streaks peep out of 

 an almost unbroken grey, and this among specimens killed at 

 the same time and of apparently the same age. The lower 

 breast and the whole lower parts of the body are pale greyish- 

 rufous, all the bases of the feathers (only seen if their tips are 

 lifted) being a sort of bluish-dusky ; the axillaries, wing-lining, 

 and, in fact, the whole lower surface of the wings, except the 

 points of the quills, a pale delicate salmon-rufous. 



The female only differs in being generally somewhat smaller, 

 in having the white, grey, and black of the head, neck, throat, 

 and breast much duller (and in many specimens overcast with 

 a sandy or pale rufous shade), in the various stripes being less 

 well marked, and in having the dark spots and streaks of the 

 throat and breast almost obsolete. 



