130 PHASIANIDjE. 



found to be distended with seeds of grass mixed with a large 

 numher of insects. Seeds of the reed (Arundo phragmitis) 

 are also frequently to be met with, and the gizzards of all 

 contain sand and fragments of stone. 



The adult male has the beak brownish-grey ; the irides 

 hazel ; top of the head dark brown, with a pale wood-brown 

 streak from the base of the beak on each side over the eye 

 and the ear-coverts, and a narrow streak of the same colour 

 over the crown of the head to the nape of the neck ; the 

 plumage of the back, wings, rump, and tail, brown, with 

 lighter-coloured shafts and longitudinal streaks of wood- 

 brown ; wing-primaries dusky brown, mottled with light 

 brown ; chin and throat white, bounded by two half-circular 

 dark brown bands descending from the ear-coverts, and 

 with a black patch at the bottom in front ; breast-feathers 

 pale chestnut-brown, with shafts ; lower part of the breast, 

 the belly, vent, and under tail-coverts, yellowish-white; 

 flank-feathers barred and mottled with brown on the edges, 

 and broadly streaked with pale buff down the centre ; legs, 

 toes, and claws, pale brown. 



The whole length is seven inches. The wing from the 

 carpal joint to the end, four inches and a half: the first 

 feather a very little longer than the second, and a quarter 

 of an inch longer than the third ; the form of the wing is 

 therefore pointed. 



The female has no dark half-circular marks descending 

 down the sides of the neck, nor the black patch in front ; 

 but the feathers on her breast are strongly marked with 

 a small dark spot on each side of the light straw-coloured 

 shaft. 



The young birds of the year resemble the adult female. 

 The young males do not acquire the black patch on the 

 front of the neck till their second year. 



In the illustration which precedes this subject, the figure 

 in the foreground represents the male bird ; that behind 

 and a little to the left, the female. 



