STUKNID.E PHOLIDAUGES 45 



others blackish glossed with purple and violet, the outer feather 

 with its outer web white for its basal three-fourths (this white on 

 the outer tail-feather distinguishing P. leucog aster verreauxi from 

 the more northern P. leucogaster typicus). 



Iris bright yellow ; bill and feet black. 



Length 6-60; wing 4-25; tail 2-40 ; tarsus 0'80; culmen 0-60. 



Adult female. Above dark brown, the feathers of the crown 

 and mantle with bright rufous edges, those of the back with paler 

 edges, of the rump and upper tail-coverts still paler ; wing-coverts 

 and secondaries brown margined with rufous, some of the secondaries 

 slightly glossed with green ; primaries darker brown with narrow 

 lighter edges (among the feathers of the mantle are three of a 

 brilliant metallic copper-colour resembling those of the adult male) ; 

 a spot of dusky in front of eye ; over the eye some rufous feathers ; 

 ear-coverts reddish-grey ; throat whitish with small streaks of dark 

 brown ; cheeks reddish, streaked with brown ; an indistinct rufous 

 collar across the chest ; rest of under surface white streaked with 

 dark brown, chiefly on the breast and flanks ; under tail-coverts 

 white ; tail-feathers brown, the outer feathers edged with rufous on 

 the outer webs ; under wing-coverts and axillaries brown edged 

 with rufous ; under surface of quills rufous on the inner webs for 

 their basal three-fourths. The female of P. leucogaster verreauxi 

 only differs from the female of P. leucogaster typicus in being 

 slightly more rufous on the crown. 



Iris chrome-yellow ; bill and feet black. 



Length 6-60; wing 4-20 ; tail 2- 40 ; tarsus 0-90; culmen 0-60. 



The specimen described was shot on the Okavango Eiver on 

 the 10th of October, and although sexed as a female, may, I think, 

 be really a young male beginning to assume the adult plumage ; the 

 presence of the three metallic feathers in the mantle possibly 

 indicating the commencing change. With reference to this matter, 

 Dr. Sharpe writes as follows regarding the northern P. leucogaster 

 typicus in the Catalogue of the British Museum, vol. xiii, p. 122: 

 " Some ornithologists have contended that in North-eastern Africa 

 the adult female becomes metallic like the male. This experience 

 has been controverted by other travellers. It seems to me most 

 unlikely that the female should become metallic, as no tendency to 

 go beyond the brown plumage exhibits itself in the South African 

 P. verreauxi (but vide supra), and yet in three specimens from 

 Abyssinia, two of which are sexed as females by Mr. Jesse, there 

 are a few metallic purple feathers. It is at any rate a curious fact, 



