46 BXJTEONIN^. 



rest of the top of the head and nape to where the ruff joins in, 

 grey, tinged with brown, most strongly so on nape feathers and 

 with dark shafts ; cheeks and ear-coverts grey, the feathers 

 broadly edged with greyish-white, so as to produce a striated 

 appearance. Feathers of ruff, which, as regards color, is very 

 conspicuous, greyish-white with narrow, central, grey streaks; 

 back of the neck, below, brownish-grey ; patch of nape greyish- 

 white, the feathers slightly darker shafted and some of them 

 with the greyish traces of faint, brownish-grey, transverse, 

 subterminal spots ; the whole of the base of the neck behind, 

 upper back and scapulars, a sort of ash-grey, more or less 

 tinged towards the tips with brownish-grey, and the longer 

 scapulars frosted with a purer grey ; the middle and lower back 

 a shade lighter grey, the white bases of the feathers showing 

 through, more or less ; upper tail-coverts pure white, with re- 

 gular, broad, transverse, grey or slightly brownish-grey bars ; 

 the whole of the wing-coverts, winglet, tertials, and outer webs 

 of secondaries and last four primaries grey, more silvery on quills, 

 and browner on lesser-coverts ; the median-coverts narrowly pale 

 margined, and most of the other feathers of the corners narrowly, 

 paler tipped ; the second and last four primaries have the cen- 

 tral halves of the inner webs pure grey, and the marginal halves 

 white ; the first primary is silver-grey on the outer web, dusky- 

 grey on the inner, as far as the notch, and above this chiefly 

 white ; the next four are nearly black, with a good deal of silver- 

 grey, however, on the outer webs of the first two, and of white, 

 more or less mottled with dusky, on the inner webs of all towards 

 the base ; the sixth is dusky-grey on the outer web and tip, and 

 paler and browner-grey on inner web, which has a broad marginal 

 stripe, broadest towards base, where it occupies nearly the whole 

 web of white irregularly mottled with grey ; the central tail- 

 feathers are a uniform silver-grey, slightly shaded with dusky on 

 the terminal half; the next feather, on each side, is similar, but 

 there are five or six white patches on the shafts, and traces of 

 corresponding paler bars on the inner webs, which are very 

 narrowly, paler margined ; in each succeeding feather, the white 

 patches on the shaft are better marked, and extend further and 

 further across the outer webs, while the corresponding broad pale 

 bars on the inner webs, at first only mottled with white, become 

 pure white and larger, and at the same time the white margin 

 of the inner webs spreads inwards, so that the two exterior 

 feathers have the inner webs pure white, with only four or five, 

 somewhat narrow bars of grey, or brownish-grey, (which do not 

 extend to the margin), and here and there a little freckling, 

 chiefly towards the base of the same color ; chin, throat and 

 front of the neck pearl-grey, whitish on chin ; breast, abdomen, 

 vent, sides, wing-lining and thigh-coverts pure white with just 

 the faintest possible grey mottling or freckling in places on 

 sides, and base of thighs ; lower tail-coverts white, with rather 



