ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 241 



and the pad at the back of the lower part of the tarsus more 

 prominent and pinker than in the adults. The adult females, 

 which are more massively built than the males, have the 

 tarsi brown with a pinkish tinge, and the feet brownish pmk. 

 In the quite young females the legs and feet are pmk, only 

 slightly brownish ; in all the soles are greyish to yellowish 

 horny ; the bill black, a little brownish in females ; the 

 gape and orbital skin pink. As a rule I think the irides are 

 pure brown, but in two they were brownish orange and m 

 one dull brownish maroon. 



Both sexes have three distinct parallel stages of plumage, 

 and in all three stages the sexes differ, in that the delicate 

 blue grey of the males of the greater portion of the outer 

 webs of the secondaries and their great coverts is in the 

 females more or less replaced by delicate clear rather pale, 

 as I should call it, ochraceous olive brown. 



Mr. Sharpe's description of the adult male is correct enough, 

 but I may note a few points. The older the bird the darker 

 and purer and the less olive the green of the upper surface ; 

 the purer the green and the less when held away from the 

 light the yellowish or olivaceous tinge on the lower surface ; 

 the more blue there is about the abdomen, and the more 

 the deep purplish blue of the ear-coverts extends over the 

 cheeks and the less traces there are of any ochraceous tmge 

 on the lower tail-coverts. 



Note that in all adults, younger or older, of both sexes, if 

 you hold the birds between yourself and the light near the 

 level of the eve, you will see the whole green portions of the 

 plumage shot with ruddy gold and the grey of the tail with 

 golden. 



The adult females only differ from the males, in that the 

 grey of the outer webs of the secondaries is replaced, except 

 just where it precedes the black tips, by an ochraceous olive 

 brown, while the grey of the outer webs of their greater 

 coverts is replaced, on the inner halves or more of these, by 

 the same colour. The extent of this brown varies in the 

 individual and not according to age ; in some a mere speck 

 of grey remains on the secondaries between the brown 

 and the black tips; in others nearly a quarter of an 

 inch. 



The second plumage differs from the adult in having the 

 chin, upper throat, entire cheeks, ear-coverts and a patch 

 behind these pure white, and the rest of the lower surface a 

 bright ochraceous orange, quite pure on the middle of the 

 abdomen and lower tail-coverts, a little brushed with green on 



31 



