344 ON THE PLUMAGE AND HABITS OF 



terminal white band. Primaries sepia brown/ barred grey % 

 secondaries lighter brown with mottled light bars ; tertials 

 barred whitish, with darker edges to the bars than the ground 

 color of the feathers ; rectrices sepia brown, barred and broadly- 

 tipped with buffy white ; feathers of the under surface as downy 

 as those of the head, the predominating hue being greyish 

 white, the lower parts indistinctly barred with dark grey ; 

 tibial and tarsal plumes greyish white, obsoletely barred ; loreal 

 plumes blackish ; and facial disc uniform golden brown. 



After the lapse of a few weeks the tips of the feathers of 

 the interscapular region, next the scapulars and those of the 

 lower part of the sides of the neck, just above the point of 

 the closed wing, began to darken, and a V shaped mark, having 

 its apex about the middle of the back, was formed ; this was 

 the origin of the deep sepia brown back of the adult stage; 

 On the 15th of June the first indication of the mature dress 

 was perceived in the appearance on the tarsus of buff feathers 

 barred with dark brown, the first plumage falling out to give 

 place to them. In a short time the ground of the tail feathers 

 deepened to black, and the adult feathers began to assert 

 themselves elsewhere on the throat and parts of the breast. 

 The tarsus and tibia took about three weeks in changing, and 

 by this time the whole of the interscapular region had 

 become very deep sepia brown ; the down}* 1 feathers along 

 the ulna commenced to fall out, and the deep brown edge 

 to develope itself, while the wing-coverts kept pace with 

 the rest, the whole wing rapidly becoming dark. I would 

 here remark that, as far as I could ascertain from close 

 observation, the shorter feathers of the first plumage, — those of 

 the head, under surface, edge of wing and the tibial and tarsal 

 plumes, — were newly acquired by moult, while the quills, rec- 

 trices, greater wing-coverts, and scapulars changed colour only. 



To continue the change of plumage ; by the 31st July the 

 whole of the under-surface was fully clothed with new feathers, 

 the lesser wing-coverts were fully grown, the back had assumed 

 the adult appearance, the chin had become deep brown, the 

 " ruff" extending round under it by degrees. The fascial disc 

 had not altered by that time, but as the bird grew older it 

 darkened into the normal yellow-rufous colour, and I would 

 add that no trace of brown has ever existed in it or in that of 

 the second bird I procured, nor have I distinguished this fea- 

 ture in any other of the Ceylonese examples I have examined. 

 The feathers of the head were the last to change, that part 

 becoming brown about the middle of September, but it was 



