352 ON TWO SPECIES OF BATRACHOSTOMITS. 



Malayan species which I formerly considered might be 

 Podargus stellatus, Gould, P. Z. S., 1837, p. 43, but it does not 

 accord with the description of that, and its dimensions are 

 rather superior/' 



Of castaneus I have given the dimensions above. The descrip- 

 tion of the adult is as follows : — The whole plumage may be said 

 to be a rich chesnut bay ; somewhat paler on the quills and 

 tail, and fading to rufescent white on the chin, vent, and a 

 frontal band which is continued as a broad supercilium over 

 both eyes ; the nuchal feathers have a white subterminal band, 

 bounded by a narrow black line above and below, thus forming 

 a demi-collar ; almost all the scapulars have large pure white 

 spots towards the tips, chiefly on the outer webs, more or less 

 encircled by a black frame ; the feathers at the base of the 

 throat have similarly a broad white subterminal band with a 

 blackish brown margin, and many of the feathers of the centre 

 ef the breast and upper abdomen have broad white spots near 

 the tips, bounded below by a narrow black line ; the wing- 

 coverts are quite spotless, the outer webs of the quills are, as 

 already remarked, a paler chesnut ; the inner webs blackish 

 brown ; in the later secondaries and tertiaries, portions of the 

 outer web near the shaft are more or less also freckled with 

 blackish brown, while the inner webs are more or less margined 

 and towards the bases show traces of imperfect bars, of a sort 

 of pale salmon color ; the under tail -coverts are buffy white, 

 with traces of imperfect arrow-head brown bars towards the 

 tips ; the wing lining is rufous white, at times, more or less 

 irregularly barred with darkish brown; the tail exhibits, eight 

 or nine, moderately broad transverse bars of brown freckles ; 

 the shafts of the tail feathers are deep brown, for the basal 

 three-fifths, pale rufescent brown beyond. The legs and feet 

 appear to have been yellow; the bill pale yellowish horny, 

 tinged reddish on the culmen and towards the tip of the upper 

 mandible. The fourth, fifth and sixth quills are equal, or nearly 

 so, and longest, in one specimen however the sixth is consider- 

 ably shorter. Of the tail feathers the six central ones are nearly 

 equal, the penultimate pair are an inch and a half shorter, and 

 the exterior pair are fully three inches shorter. 



The supposed young is more in the garb of Otothrix Hodgsoni. 

 The feathers of the lores and those impendiug over the upper 

 mandible are bright buffy white, tinged here and there rufous, 

 and barred with black, and the bristle-like shafts of the latter 

 are black. A broad pale creamy buff stripe extends along the 

 front of the forehead and over both eves. The whole top and 



