Contributions to the Orniniology of India, ^"c. 341 



greyish brown, all tlie feathers narrowly streaked along the shaft 

 with dark brown. The upper back and whole mantle is a mix- 

 ture of pale brown and ashy, most of the feathers with blackish 

 shafts, more or less darkly centred, and all conspicuously, thoug-li 

 narrowly, margined and tipped with white. Lower back and 

 rump brown, the feathers narrowly and regularly margined,, 

 with white ; upper tail coverts similar, but the white margins 

 much broader and the brown more or less obsolete on many of them.. 

 Tail feathers, greyish brown ; greyer and somewhat darker on 

 the central ones, and paler and browner on the external ones, all 

 are excessively narrowly, in fact almost obsoletely, bordered with 

 white. The primaries and their greater coverts are hair brown, 

 most of the latter tipped white ; the secondaries and their gi'eat- 

 er coverts are a pale somewhat greyish brown, all of them' 

 narrowly, but the coverts less narrowly of the two, margined' 

 with white. The wing lining, except just at the margin of the 

 wing which is mottled with brown, pure white ; the axillaries 

 white with traces of irregular, wavy, pale brown bars. There 

 are a few elongated triangular pale brown dashes on the flanks, 

 and in some specimens one or two larger blackish brown spots 

 pertaining to the summer plumage. 



According to Schlegel, the summer plumage is as follows : 

 " Feathers of the head and neck each with a large dark brown 

 , longitudinal streak or spot on an albescent ground, which is tinged 

 with brownish rufous on the nape. Feathers of the breast and nape, 

 brownish black, each with a whitish transverse band about the 

 middle often tinged with brownish red towards the middle. The 

 rest of the lower parts and the rump, pure white; spotted, except 

 towards the middle of the abdomen, with broader or narrower 

 dark brown spots. Back and wings, brownish black, lighter 

 on the wing coverts ; all the feathers spotted and bordei'ed witk 

 a bright brownish rufous, gradually disappearing towards the 

 edge of the wing. Lower wing coverts, white, becoming black 

 at the base.^^ 



This species, (though it is larger, and stouter,) so far as winter 

 plumage and general appearance go, very much resembles the 

 knot, and I have no doubt that it was a: specimen of this species 

 and not of T. canntus of which Dr. Jerdon obtained a solitary 

 specimen at Madras. Hitherto this species has been obtained 

 at Swan River, and on the north coast of Australia, in Borneo, 

 Java, and many of the islands of the Indian Archipelego, Japan, 

 on the coasts of China, the banks of the lower Amoor, and the 

 Sea of Okhotsh ; but its occurrence in large numbers as a regu- 

 lar seasonal visitant so far east as Kurrachee, is a very noteworthy 

 fact. 



