IN JERDON OR STRAY FEATHERS. 411 



from 1 to 1*1 ; greatest width from *63 to *8; bill from front, 

 *36 to "39 ; weight from '45 to *5 oz. 



Female. — Length, 5'5 to 5*9 ; expanse, 9 to 95 ; tail from 

 vent, 2'2 to £'72 ; wing from carpal joint to tip of longest pri- 

 mary, 2-87 to 2*96 ; when closed reaching within 1*1 to 1*7 of 

 the end of the tail; foot, greatest length, 1*1 to 1*17 ; greatest 

 width, '72 to *8; bill from front, "35 to '38; weight from *38 

 to 0-6 oz. 



" Description. — The legs and feet were in some pale waxy 

 yellow, in some dingy, in some fleshy yellow or yellowish fleshy; 

 the feet, especially at the joints, more or less tinged with brown- 

 ish ; the claws rather pale brown ; the bill had the upper mandi- 

 ble brown, in some blackish brown, the lower in some waxy, in 

 some fleshy, and in some dingy yellow ; irides brown. 



The male has the forehead, top of the head, and nape greyish 

 white, grey or white in different specimens, each feather with a 

 conspicuous linear, median, black streak ; a narrow pure white 

 superciliary stripe starting from the base of the bill and extending 

 behind the eye over the ear-coverts ; the lores, and a moderately 

 broad stripe directly behind the eye (and immediately under 

 the white stripe), involving the upper portions of the ear-coverts, 

 black ; below this another greyish white stripe, involving the 

 rest of the ear-coverts ; below this, starting from the base of 

 the lower mandible, a black stripe ; below this, from the lower 

 angle of the lower mandible, a greyish white stripe, which 

 again is divided from the greyish white of the chin by a narrow 

 inconspicuous dark streak. 



a In the fresh birds in breeding plumage, which I am des- 

 cribing, all these streaks and stripes are as clearly and sharply 

 defined as if painted ; but at other seasons, and in stuffed speci- 

 mens, they are not so clear ; the whole of the back, scapulars, 

 and tertials are hair brown, the former two very broadly, the 

 latter more narrowly, margined with pale, more or less sandy 

 or even rufous brown ; in many specimens the darker median 

 streaks of the back feathers are redueed to mere lines, and in 

 some the rufous tinge on the upper back is well marked ; the 

 primaries and secondaries and their coverts are a mixture of 

 hair brown and rich rufous (recalling in colour the wings of 

 Mirafra eryihroptera) , the extent of each varying in different 

 specimens, but the brown predominating in the earlier primaries 

 and everywhere at the tips, and decreasing in extent in the 

 hinder part of the wing and towards the bases of the feathers ; 

 the second primary, for instance, will be all brown, except a 

 narrow rufous edging for the basal two-thirds of the outer web, 

 and a broad rufous stripe ou the margin of the inner web for 

 the same distance, while one of the later secondaries will be all 



