188 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



more or less of an orange tinge; the bases of the feathers 

 always appear to show through a good deal. In the female 

 these parts are brown, varying greatly in shade of color, 

 apparently according 1 to age. In the younger birds it is 

 a wood brown, in the oldest a sooty brown ; in both cases 

 darkest towards the tips of the occipital feathers. In other 

 respects the plumage of both sexes is precisely alike. The 

 whole of the interscapulary region and back, scapulars and ter- 

 tiaries, black, broadly barred with white, or sometimes yellowish 

 white. The rest of the quills and their coverts varying from 

 hair brown on the first primary to almost black on the later 

 secondaries, with numerous white spots. The first primary 

 generally with only one or two white spots on the inner web 

 towards the base. The others, primaries and the secondaries, with 

 three or four white spots on both webs, small on the outer, larger 

 on the inner webs. Different specimens vary greatly as 

 regards the size and number of these spots. Upper tail coverts 

 black, with a subterminal white band, and one or two similar, 

 but more or less imperfect bands higher up. The tail feathers 

 vary a great deal in their markings, but it may be said 

 that normally they are blackish brown darkest on the central 

 ones. That the central pair have from three to five white 

 or yellowish white spots on each web, the basal pair hidden 

 by the upper tail coverts. The next two pairs on each side 

 have three or four smaller spots on the outer web, and either 

 no spots on the inner web, or only one, or at most only two 

 very small ones. The next pair on either side with a white 

 subterminal bar, and three pairs of spots on either web. The 

 next pair similar, but with only two pairs of spots ; in both these 

 pairs the spots sometimes run right across. The external pair of 

 all are very small, completely hidden by the lower tail coverts. 

 I should note that on the under-surface of the tail the spots 

 towards the tips of the feathers are often more or less tinged 

 with yellowish brown. From the angle of the lower mandible 

 runs a blackish brown streak down either side of the neck. 

 The lores, chin, throat, cheeks, a line over the eye, ear coverts, 

 and sides of the neck white or brownish white, the sides of the 

 neck being the purest white. The ear-coverts streaked brownish, 

 and some of the feathers at the base of the throat with small, 

 more or less triangular, dark brown subterminal spots. The 

 rest of the lower parts dingy white, strongly tinged with 

 brown or yellowish brown, most strongly so on the abdomen, 

 the amount and intensity of this tinging varying much in 

 different specimens. All the feathers of the breast, with 



