IN JERDON OR STRAY FEATHERS. 337 



the white tipping of the tail, or secondaries, or in the colour of 

 the lower abdomen, vent, and leg feathevs. 



Two birds, whose heads, necks, and upper backs correspond, 

 differ entirely where the lower plumage, or perhaps tail-feathers 

 are concerned, and vice vcrsd. It is clear, therefore, that some 

 birds change first below, others above, some earlier on the 

 heads, and others on the tails, thus rendering the determina- 

 tion of the comparative priority of the various forms doubly 

 difficult. 



The adult stage is well known. The whole head, nape, 

 cheeks, ear-coverts, and sides of the neck buff or orange buff; 

 the back, scapulars, (except a few which are pure white) upper 

 tail-coverts, wing-coverts, primaries and secondaries, chin, 

 throat, breast, abdomen, leg feathers, sides, axillaries, and wing- 

 lining deep blackish brown ; the lesser wing-coverts margin- 

 ed, and the upper tail-coverts tipped, with fulvous white ; the 

 lower tail-coverts white and a good deal of white mottling 

 about the tertiaries, which are a pale brown ; the tail grey, 

 with a very broad terminal black band, occupying fully two- 

 fifths of its visible surface, and above this, a number of more 

 or less broad, irregular mottled and imperfect transverse dark 

 brown bands, which sometimes do, and sometimes do not, 

 coincide exactly at the shaft. 



This is what I take to be the perfect adult. In less advanced 

 examples of this stage, the forehead, and more or less of 

 the crown, are blackish brown ; the feathers of the chin and 

 throat, as well as the upper breast, are margined, more or less 

 broadly, with the same orange buff as the head and nape. 



The axillaries and lower wing-coverts are more or less 

 mottled with rufous, the lower tail-coverts with rufous brown ; 

 and the ground colour of the tail, above the black tip, is pale 

 yellowish stone colour rather than grey ; the upper tail- 

 coverts likewise are paler brown, and more broadly tipped 

 with fulvous white. In this stage, too, the changes are not 

 synchronous — birds most advanced about the head being often 

 least so about the tails ; those most advanced on the upper, 

 least so on the under surface, and vice versa. 



The amount of white on the scapulars, too, varies greatly. 

 Some have only a single feather, others nearly the whole 

 scapulars white, and I have some specimens, perfect adults, 

 as regards the plumage on every other point, but exhibiting 

 no trace whatsoever of white on the scapulars. — Hume, " Rough 

 Notes." 



