THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OP BENGAL. 207 



the fourth quill is the longest ; the third and fifth equal and ahout 

 0*15 shorter ; the second about 08, and the first about 2*5 shorter. 

 The tail is black, browner towards the base. The exterior tail fea- 

 ther, which is about 0"8 shorter than the central ones, pale brown 

 on the outer webs and at the tip, which again is narrowly tipped 

 white. The next pair on either side about 0*4 shorter than the 

 central tail feathers, and tipped with brownish white, and the 

 next pair again with a trace of the same ; the chin, throat, and 

 upper breast pale iron grey ; the rest of the breast, the entire 

 wing lining, axillaries, and entire lower parts, white, narrowly, 

 closely and strongly bari'ed, with blackish brown ; the white 

 of the lower breast and abdomen being* in some specimens 

 slightly tinged with grey. 



The adult female is very similar, but the point of the fore- 

 head is iron grey, not black, and the lores, eye, and ear stripe are 

 perhaps not quite so intense a black as in the male. The chin, 

 throat, and upper breast are barred like the rest of the lower 

 parts, but still more closely. The pale margins to the primaries 

 and secondaries are perhaps a trifle more conspicuous. 



The young birds appear to present a very different appear- 

 ance. The youngest I procured has the whole chin, throat, and 

 breast strongly tinged with ferruginous, the tertiaries, secondaries, 

 and later primaries are comparatively broadly margined, and 

 tipped with pale rufous, or rufescent white. The tertiaries and 

 later secondaries have also a rufous spot near the point, and 

 exhibit traces of having been barred. Some of the upper tail 

 coverts, some of the scapulars, and a few of the back feathers still 

 remain rufous barred with blackish brown, peeping out amongst 

 the new iron grey feathers. There is a dull rufous supercilium 

 running from the nostrils over the eyes ; the lores are dusky, 

 with tiny white spots, and the cheeks also are dusky, the feathers 

 white shafted, and from what 1 can judge the whole upper 

 surface of the nestling bird must be banded rufous and dark 

 brown. In other specimens further advanced, the ferruginous 

 patch is smaller and confined to the breast, no banded feathers 

 remain on the upper surface, which is like that of the adult, and 

 the conspicuous rufous margins of the quills have become nar- 

 rower and paler. 



Since this was written I have obtained a nestling bird which 

 is much as I expected it to be. The top and back of the head,, 

 the back and scapulars, are mostly pale rufescent, banded with 

 dark brown, here and there a few dark iron grey unhanded 

 feathers peeping through. The whole of the secondary greater 

 coverts are broadly tipped and margined with pale rufous ; the 



