286 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



the scapulars and back ; upper tail coverts pure white ; the 

 greater portion of the tail white ; the central feathers with 

 about the terminal half, (viz., rather more than the visible por- 

 tion projecting beyond the upper tail-coverts,) pale hair brown 

 with a greenish tinge,, paling very much towards the tips ; lateral 

 tail feathers successively more and more narrowly tipped, 

 the brown growing darker and on the two exterior pairs not 

 paling at all towards the tips; the sides are a greenish grey 

 brown; the axillaries and wing lining, (except the primary 

 greater, lower coverts, and those along the edge of the wing) 

 deep ferruginous chesnut ; the greater primary lower coverts 

 pale satin brown, and those along the ridge of the wing paler 

 or darker hair brown, more or less margined and tipped with 

 white; upper abdomen more rufescent and less brown than 

 the breast ; lower abdomen, vent, flanks and lower tail-coverts 

 pure white. 



The sexes are precisely alike, but the males seem to average 

 rather larger. 



Somewhat younger birds have the head unicolorous with 

 the back, exhibit scarcely any trace of the rufescent nuchal 

 collar, have the breast almost unicolorous with the back, and 

 only faintly tinged with rufescent, and have the whole of the 

 coloring everywhere somewhat paler and duller. 



In the quite young bird the whole top and back of the head 

 and entire mantle are a pale grey brown with a decided green 

 tinge, every feather with a narrow yellowish white edging ; 

 the tail feathers, especially the central ones, are very narrowly 

 tipped with pure white; the chin, cheeks, throat, in fact the 

 whole space that would lie within the gorget in the adult, is 

 white, here and there tinged yellowish ; the chin is spotless ; 

 the whole of the rest is striated with grey brown streaks or 

 lines all radiating, as it were, from the central spotless chin ; the 

 sides of the neck are like the back ; the sides, breast and 

 upper abdomen pale grey brown, each feather with an albescent 

 fringe at and towards the tip; the rest of the lower parts 

 pure white. 



Davison remarks : — "This bird is migratory at the Andamans 

 and Nicobars. On the 10th March I saw them for the first 

 time at the Nicobars. At the Andamans they had not arrived 

 when I left in January for the Nicobars, but I found them on 

 my return. I shot them also on Table Island in April. They fre- 

 quent gardens, ploughed fields, hill sides, &c. They are said 

 to breed both at the Andamans and Nicobars, but I obtained 

 no reliable particulars of their nidification." 



