230 A Description of the Birds 



yellow ; claws black. Length from bill to base of tail eleven 

 inches ; length of latter nearly the same*. 



Young. Bill nearly as in mature specimens ; head rufous, 

 with the centres of all the feathers black ; back and sides of 

 neck similarly marked, but the spots largest on the former, 

 whereby the latter exhibits a greater proportion of rufous ; 

 interscapulars, back, shoulders, and tail coverts brown, the 

 latter broadly tipt with rufous ; the feathers of the back and 

 shoulders with narrow edgings and tips of the same color. 

 Chin and throat tawny, variegated by a few black longitu- 

 dinal streaks; breast and belly similarly colored, but the 

 streaks considerably larger and more numerous ; under tail 

 coverts and thighs tawny, without, or with but very few 

 variegations. Primary and secondary wing coverts brown, 

 tipt with tawny; primary wing feathers dark brown, the 

 inner vanes towards tips banded with black, and towards 

 quills with black and white or pale tawny; secondaries 

 brown, banded with black on their inner vanes, and mottled 

 towards the edges of latter with tawny white, all the tips 

 tawny. Tail slightly rounded, each feather with four or five 

 transverse bands of black, and between these brown, finely 

 mottled with white, some of the black bands are, in some 

 specimens, somewhat arrow-shaped, and have a line of tawny 

 white on the edge most distant from the body. Instead of an 

 uniform brown between the black bands, there is, in several 

 of the lateral feathers a mixture of white, either in the form 

 of blotches or partial bands, the tips of all the feathers are 

 tawny white ; legs and toes greenish yellow ; claws black. 

 The only specimen of this species which I have seen ex- 

 hibiting the mature plumage was shot on the Baviaans River, 

 and the two young ones which I have had the means of com- 

 paring with it, were killed near Wynberg. 



Obs. Though there are many and strong points of simi- 

 larity between the three specimens just viewed as belonging 

 to the same species, yet there are some others also, which 

 warrant the existence of doubt ; and, therefore, till more satis- 

 factory evidence can be obtained, the fact of identity or non- 

 identity must remain undecided. The great approximation, 

 however, does not appear to me to sanction their being 

 described as two species, more particularly as two out of the 

 three are decidedly young, and not referable to any other 

 species I have yet met with here. 



* As the history of the bird described is not well known, I have purposely 

 avoided referring it to either sex, though a minute comparison with two 

 young specimens would incline me to view it as a female. 



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