The Wagietils of India. S7 



of the summer plumage of tlie same species. Briefly, the dif- 

 ferences of these three fo-rm* maj he thus dieserihed : in Lt(,zoni- 

 ensis, the whole of the front of the head as far hack as the 

 crown, lores, and the whole of the face, sides of the neck, chin 

 and throat are pure white ; occiput, nape, ma>ntle, and a broad 

 hand o^n the breast are black ; in Modgsoni, only the front of the 

 head, lores,, orbital region, and ear-eovei'ts, chin, and upper 

 portion of the throat are white ; the whole of the rest of the 

 sides of the neck and throa^t have become unbroken black, joined 

 into' the breast band, and from the gape, a narrow black line 

 runs below tbe orbital region and ear-coverts, dividing these 

 from the white of the chin and upper throat and joining into 

 the black of the sides of the neck; the major portion of- the 

 visible parts of the wing coverts of Luzoniensk are white, and 

 the quills, too, are margined with white ; the seco-ndaries more 

 broadly towards their tips; in liodgsoni, there is even more 

 white upon the wing. 



There can, I think, be no doubt, that Wodgsonv is only a some- 

 what more advanced stage than Luzoniensk, and I may notice 

 that both forms are beautifully figured in Mr. Hodgson's drawings 

 now before me, and that he recognized their indentity, assign- 

 ing to both the name of Alboiodes. When we turn io Ltigens as 

 figured by Sehlegel, Fauna Japoniea, the lores, the whole of the 

 space below the eye, and the eye covei'ts have become black ; the 

 frontal patch only extends backwards as far as the front of the 

 eye over whieh it extends as a supercilium ; the white of the 

 ehin is still farther contracted than in Hodgsoni, and there is, if 

 possible, even more white- on the wing than in this latter species ; 

 this is a still nearer approach to the full breeding plumage. 



The full breeding plumage has never, I believe, been yet de- 

 scribed. I have had specimens, typical of each of the three forms 

 above described, obtained in the Himalayas, at different times 

 of the year', between April and September; but specimens killed 

 at tbe end of May and early in June, shew what the full 

 breeding plumage is; namely the wholte chin, thi'oat, and top 

 of the head, with the mantle, sides of the neck, and back pure 

 velvet blaek ; and the white, which in each preceding stage 

 was gradually diminishing, now reduced to a somewhat narrow 

 frontal band, continued as a superciliary stripe over the eye 

 and backwards over the ear-coverts. If any one insists upon 

 making a fourth species out of this full breeding stage, he 

 m-A.y ii2i\\ it Superciliaris ; but I do not myself doubt that one 

 and all are stages of the same species. I should mention 

 that in the final stage the closed wing feoks almost entirely 

 white;. 



