336 FRINGILLin/E. 



" Male. Forehead, top of the head and nape greyish white, grey or white 

 in different specimens, each feather with a conspicuous linear median black 

 streak ; a narrow, pure white superciliary stripe starting from the base of the 

 bill and extending behind the eye over the ear coverts ; the lores and a 

 moderately broad stripe directly behind the eye (and immediately under the 

 white stripe), involving the upper portions of the ear coverts black: ; below this 

 another greyish white stripe, involving the rest of the ear coverts ; below this, 

 starting from the base of the lower mandible, a greyish white stripe, which 

 is again divided from the greyish white of the chin by a narrow inconspicuous 

 dark streak. In the fresh birds in breeding plumage all these streaks and 

 stripes are as clearly and sharply defined as if painted ; but at other seasons 

 and in stuffed specimens they are not so clear ; the whole of the back, scapu- 

 lars, and tertials are hair brown, the former two very broadly, the latter more 

 narrowly margined with pale more or less sandy, or even rufous brown; in 

 many specimens the darker median streaks of the back feathers are 

 reduced to mere lines, and in some the rufous tinge on the upper 

 back is well marked ; the primaries "and secondaries and their coverts are 

 a mixture of hair brown -and rich rufous (recalling in -colour the wings of 

 Mirafra erythroptera), the extent of each varying in different specimens, 

 but the brown predominating in the 'earlier primaries and everywhere 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 tfhe 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 the tip and 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 faair 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. Speci- 

 mens differ widely in this respect; in some the greyish white is a mere 

 edging to dusky black feathers ; 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 the 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. 



