IN JERDON OR STRAY FEATHERS. 431 



Females. — Length, 18 to 20; expanse, 29 to 31*5 ; wing, 

 9-55 to 10-2; tail from vent, 6-4 to 7*0; tarsus, 2*1 to 

 2-2 ; bill from gape, 1-15 to 1'3. 



The irides are brown, or reddish brown, (orbits red) ; the legs 

 and feet vary in both sexes, as far as I can make out, from 

 orange, through every stage, to almost coral red — possibly 

 according to season, more probably according to age. 

 The bill is dull red to orange horny in the male, often dusky 

 about the base, ( a sign I fancy of non-age ) and greenish, or 

 yellowish green in the female, always apparently dusky to- 

 wards the base, and paler and yellower on the lower 

 mandible. 



Male. — Forehead and broad line from the nostrils through 

 the lores and eyes, and over the ear-coverts, buffy white ; 

 rest of the top of head, occiput, nape, cheeks, side of the head 

 and neck, dull bluish grey, very freely and inconspicuously vermi- 

 culated with blackish brown, and with specks and spots of 

 fulvous white ; chin, and a broad line down the centre of the 

 throat, slightly fulvous white ; a broad irregular band round 

 the base of the neck in front, grey ; the feathers vermiculated 

 with dark brown, and spotted with slightly vinaceous fawn ; 

 below this, the upper breast, white ; then over the middle 

 of the breast a broad irregular band of greyish fawn-coloured 

 feathers, all finely vermiculated with dark grey or blackish. 

 brown. 



Prejevalsky says : " A male from Kansu has under the throat 

 a large slate-coloured spot, not an uninterrupted cross band 

 running parallel to the breast band, as described by Hume, but 

 not marked at all by Gould." 



Gould, I expect, figured from an indifferent specimen, 

 or the birds may be variable in this respect, * but I have never 

 yet seen any male entirely wanting this throat band. Of five 

 adult males before me, four have the band continuous, and one 

 has it interrupted, as described by Prejevalsky, but this has 

 no spurs. 



Below the pectoral band the lower breast and abdomen are 

 white, generally with a faint creamy or vinaceous tinge, each 

 feather laterally margined with black ; the vent feathers are 

 fulvous white ; the lower tail-coverts are mingled black and 

 white, the white being chiefly confined to a broad stripe from the 

 tip running upwards, and narrowing as it approaches the centre 

 of the feather ; flanks and tibial plumes, which are much develop- 

 ed, very pale, vinaceous fawn or white, tinged vinaceous, with 

 a central linear or lanceolate linear stripe of blackish grey 



* Hodgson figures a specimen, not only without the throat band, but with only a 

 trace, just a few scattered feathers, of the breast band. 



