62 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



The bill with the tips of both mandibles black, pinkish or 

 dark fleshy at the base and gape. 



It is impossible to describe this magnificent bird in detail at 

 all satisfactorily, because I find that, with more than thirty 

 magnificent specimens before me, not two are alike. I shall, 

 therefore, only endeavour to give such a general description as 

 will, coupled with the dimensions already given, enable any one 

 to identify the birds. 



The chin, upper part of throat and breast are intense 

 brown ; the feathers often more or less margined at the tips 

 with bright ferruginous ; right across the throat is a snow-white 

 band, forming more or less of an angle in the middle, and 

 passing to buffy behind the ear-coverts ; the deep color of the 

 breast is encircled by a buffy white to rich buff collar, which 

 nearly joins the prolonged ends of the white throat band behind 

 the ear-coverts : though generally conspicuous, in some speci- 

 mens this collar is barely traceable ; the whole of the rest of the 

 lower parts are blackish brown to greyish dusky ; the feathers 

 broadly tipped with yellowish white to rusty buff, producing a 

 barred appearance ; the lower tail- coverts are buff, with con- 

 spicuous transverse, more or less cuspidate, blackish brown 

 bands, which are dotted and pencilled over with the same color 

 as the rest of the feather. The lower surface of the tail feathers 

 is blackish brown, with very broad mottled bars on both webs, 

 from fulvous white to golden buff. 



The lores and ear- coverts are deep brown, pencilled and 

 tipped more or less with light to deep ferruginous ; the 

 forehead, crown, occiput, and inner feathers of the great ear 

 tufts are buff or yellow, or pale ferruginous of different shades 

 in different specimens, excessively, minutely and delicately 

 pencilled all over with blackish brown zig-zag lines, finer 

 and closer in some, coarser and further apart in others, so 

 that the heads in some look a great deal greyer and browner, 

 and in others a great deal yellower and brighter. Some of 

 the feathers of the crown and occiput in most birds, many in a 

 few, but none in exceptional cases, exhibit larger or smaller black 

 spots near the tips, which spots again vary both in shape and 

 in position ; sometimes there are several rows, sometimes a 

 single row quite on one side of the head, more generally they 

 are in an irregular row down the centre of the crown and occi- 

 put ; sometimes there is only a single spot, sometimes a 

 number; not unfrequently some or all the feathers of the head 

 have a very decided blue grey shade ; the longer and outer 

 feathers of the ear tufts are black, tipped and sometimes a little 

 mottled with fulvous white to deep ferruginous ; the primaries 

 and secondaries are blackish brown, with very close set mottled 

 bars (in some of the later secondaries almost confluent) which 



