Mr. A. Hume on Indian Ornithology, 39 



The plumage, as a whole, is of a most brilliant white ; but the 

 primaries and their greater coverts are black, above which the 

 lesser coverts are white, while above these, again, the wiuglet 

 also is black. The first three or four secondaries have also very 

 often a blackish-brown patch towards the base, on one or both 

 webs, largest on the first, and diminishing on each succeeding 

 feather, and rarely traceable beyond the fourth. 



The earliest of the greater coverts of the secondaries have 

 not unfrequently similar patches; but I suspect that these 

 patches are the last lingering traces of the less-perfect plumage. 



In the young there is no bare space about the face. The 

 whole head and upper half of the neck are of a somewhat rusty 

 bufi". The space destined later to become bare, however, is, in 

 the youngest specimens that I have seen, well defined, its 

 clothing feathers being of a browner and dingier hue than those 

 of the rest of the head, and sitting much closer to the skin. 

 The bufi" is clearest and deepest on the cheeks and the top and 

 back of the head, and very pale on the chin and throat. The 

 rest of the plumage, when we first see the young birds, may (ex- 

 cepting the primaries and their greater coverts and wiuglets) be 

 described as buff", in some places brighter and more rufous, in 

 others duller and sandier, with white everywhere beginning to 

 peep through it. 



By February, though still much varied by buff^, the white 

 predominates in the body-plumage. At this time many of the 

 feathers of the back of the neck and upper back are still pure 

 buff, and many others are more or less tinged with this colour. 

 Many of the longer scapulars, tertials, and hindennost of the 

 secondaries are also buff", while the upper tail-coverts, aud 

 most of the lesser and median wing-coverts are tipped with it, 

 and the patch of coverts just above the winglet is usually 

 entirely ferruginous. There is a very faint tinge of buff on 

 some of the feathers of the breast; and many of the thigh- 

 coverts are wholly rusty. By the end of March, when the birds 

 are nine or ten months old, the face has begun to grow bare ; and 

 though there is still some buff" in the parts above mentioned, it 

 has become markedly less in extent, aud feebler in tint. 



