550 The Zoologist — January, 1867. 



pale, but not encroaching on the throat ; between this band and the 

 shoulders the feathers are while. The back and shoulders are leaden 

 gray, faintly edged with white ; the tertials (scapulars) of the same 

 colour, edged with brown or brownish while; the large tertials are 

 edged with white ; those of the wing-coverts, the colour of the back, 

 are edged with white: beginning in the elbow-feathers, running 

 through the secondary coverts, usurping the margin behind the carpal 

 joint, onwards into the alula or bastard wing, through the primary 

 coverts and into the primary quills, runs a black band. Many of the 

 secondary coverts about the margin of the wing are also clouded with 

 black. The elbow-feathers are white on their inner web, pale lead- 

 colour on the outer, in which is a large black semi-linear spot ending 

 abruptly against the shaft. The secondary quills are while, tinged 

 with lead-colour on the outer web. Tail white, with a black band at 

 tip; the first quill is sometimes all white, sometimes with a spot of 

 white on the inner web. Feet black. Bill black. Orbits black. 

 Mouth fleshy yellow. 



Type of the Primary Quills. — Shafts of the first four blackish smoke- 

 colour; ends of both filaments and all the lesser filaments black; 

 the greater filaments black, broadly edged with white, the white 

 increasing in quantity and usurping more of the filament and end 

 successively. Fifth primary. — Shaft smoke-colour, end of quill black, 

 tip white ; on the lesser web a patch of lead-colour gray extends for 

 two or three inches from the black end till it meets the black basal 

 portion of the web ; in its upper part this patch is edged with black, 

 otherwise it runs to the edge of the web ; the greater web, except its 

 black end, is white, tinged along the upper part of shaft with lead- 

 colour; along the basal half of shaft is a dark band of varying width. 

 Sixth primary. — End black, tip white, shaft smoke-colour ; the lesser 

 web is lead-colour, except along the basal portion of the shaft black ; 

 greater web whitish. The rest have the shafts more or less of a smoky 

 white ; the greater web and the ends white ; the lesser filaments gray. 

 This type varies but slightly, except in the extent of the colours ; the 

 same quill in the respective wings of a bird may thus differ. 



No. 4. Link 2. First Autumn Moult. — Begins in September and 

 October, is generally finished in the latter; it interferes only with the 

 head, neck, throat, back, scapulars and some of the under parts. The 

 wing-coverts, quills and tail do not change. Before this moult takes 

 place the feathers of the head and neck have faded nearly to pure 

 white, and the brown edges of the scapulars or tertiary coverts to the 



