380 BIRDS OCCURRING IN INDIA NOT DESCRIBED 



The young vary a good deal, according to stage of plumage ; 

 one before me has the lores fulvous white, and the feathers of 

 the eyelids of the same colour ; the whole of the head, nape, 

 back and scapulars a dull earthy or somewhat ashy brown, each 

 feather more or less broadly tipped with fulvous or pale fulvous 

 white, and most of them with a darker brown spot or line just 

 inside this tipping ; the rump is pale brownish yellow, each 

 feather with a narrow irregular transverse brown bar near the 

 tip ; upper tail-coverts ferruginous, with traces of brown spots 

 near the tips ; tail as in the adult, but duller coloured ; wings 

 as in the adult, but all the quills broadly tipped with brownish 

 white, and the primaries narrowly, and most of the coverts 

 and the tertiaries broadly, margined with the same colour ; chin, 

 throat, and sides of the neck pure white, everywhere, except 

 down the centre of the chin and the throat, speckled with ashy 

 brown ; breast and abdomen more or less pale buffy ; the feathers 

 inconspicuously tipped white, and with a narrow transverse 

 wavy dark brown line towards the tip ; lower tail-coverts 

 and axillaries, as well as wing-lining, pale ferruginous buff. 



Degland describes a young bird just taken from the nest, 

 thus : " Above ashy brown ; feathers of the head, nape, and back 

 ashy rufous at the centre, brown towards the tips ; front of 

 the neck and breast like the back, but with larger spots ; ab- 

 domen rufous, the feathers irregularly tipped with brown ; 

 under tail-coverts uniform light rufous ; tail as in the female." 

 Yarrell describes another bird thus : " All the upper parts light 

 and brown, each feather terminated with a spot of greyish white ; 

 quill feathers tipped with buffy white ; wing-coverts edged 

 with grey and tipped with buffy white ; tail feathers red ; the 

 two in the middle black in the centre ; underpart of the body 

 something like that of the female, but more barred with white, 

 which is again intersected with brown lines." 



Neither of these descriptions exactly agree either with the 

 young Yarkand bird above described, or with other European 

 specimens which I possess, and which tally precisely with this 

 latter, but doubtless correctly represent other stages of the 

 young bird's plumage, and I have, therefore, reproduced them. — 

 Hume, " Lahore to Yarkand.'''' 



359 Us.— Merula vulgaris, Leach. 



Adult Male. — Silky black; the wings a little paler, inclining 

 to silvery grey on the under surface of the wing ; bill orange ; 

 feet dark brown ; the soles yellow ; eye-lid orange. Total 



