THE BIRDS OF A DROUGHT. 65 



tinge ; the legs and feet were pale whitey brown, pale hoary 

 fleshy, or pale brownish fleshy. 



The male has a broad frontal band, cheeks, ear-coverts and 

 a band from these round the base of the occiput, and a large 

 patch on either side of the breast, white, in the case of the 

 two latter often tinged brownish. 



The base of the lower mandible, chin, throat, central por- 

 tion of breast, abdomen, vent and lower tail-coverts, axillaries 

 and wing-lining, (except lower primary greater coverts, 

 which are pale grey brown like the lower surface of the quills) 

 intensely deep, at times somewhat sooty, at times almost 

 chocolate brown ; the crown and upper part of occiput are 

 deep brown, never, I think, quite so intense as the lower 

 parts, often considerably lighter and more purely brown ; 

 the anterior portion of the sides of the neck, behind the 

 lower half of the ear-coverts, is always like the breast. 

 Sometimes the deep colour of these parts extends behind the 

 whole of the ear-coverts, and right round the back of the neck, 

 forming a collar immediately behind the white basal occipital 

 band, already noticed. Sometimes there is not the faintest 

 trace of this, and sometimes again the collar is only represented 

 by a larger or smaller nuchal patch. This is perhaps the most 

 common form, and hence the name *' rnelanauchen." 



The interscapulary region is a pale earthy brown, sometimes 

 with a sandy tinge. The wings rather darker, but all the 

 feathers margined with a pale whitey brown ; and inner webs 

 of quills darker, a sort of pale hair brown; central tail feathers 

 slightly paler than tertiaries ; rest of tail-feathers deep brown, 

 but the outer web of the exterior feather white or nearly so, and 

 the inner half or more of the inner web, pale whitey brown ; 

 rump and upper tail-coverts pale earthy or sandy brown, 

 noticeably paler than the interscapulary region ; flanks much 

 the same colour as the rump. 



The female has the chin, throat, abdomen, vent and lower 

 tail-coverts white, with more or less traces of a very faint 

 fawny tinge ; a broad ill-defined, pale fawny band, which is 

 sometimes feebly striated darker, covers the breast. The 

 axillaries and lesser lower coverts about the ulna are deep 

 brown, sometimes almost as deep as on the breast of the male. 



The female wants the white frontal band and patch on the 

 sides of the head, the white occipital band, the dark crown 

 and dark sides of the neck, and of course the dark collar, or 

 dark nuchal patch so common in the males ; the whole top of 

 the head is unicolorous or nearly so with the interscapulary 

 region, though the feathers are generally feebly darker centred. 



9 



