^GIALITIS HIATICULA, Lin. 199 



chin, throat and a collar round the back of the neck, white; 

 crown, occiput and nape above the white collar, a greyish or 

 earthy brown, much the same color as in duhia ; a broad, dark 

 brown band on the breast, more or less interrupted towards the 

 centre ; a blackish brown band running from this round the 

 back of the neck immediately below the white collar ; entire 

 mantle, rump, upper tail-coverts and central tail feathers like 

 the crown, and much as in duhia. In the youngest birds with 

 an excessively narrow whitish margin to the tips of tlie feathers 

 with a darker hair line inside this, but in somewhat more ad- 

 vanced birds, like the Indian specimen before me, scarcely u 

 trace of this remains. 



The centre tail feathers darker brown towards the tips. 

 The primaries somewhat darker, as are in a less degree their 

 coverts and the secondaries. The secondary greater coverts 

 tipped with pure white, forming a distinct transverse white 

 band ; traces of this white tipping on the primary greater 

 coverts. The fifth and succeeding primaries with a white 

 jsatch on the outer webs forming iu the half-closed wino- a 

 longitudinal white stripe. The whole of the lower parts below 

 the breast band, including the outer tail feather on each side, the 

 wing Lning and axillaries, pure white. The rest of the' tail 

 feathers, except the central ones, more or less broadly tipped 

 white, and with a more or less broad, blackish brown subtermi- 

 nal band. 



Now this may seem very like duhia or minuta in certain 

 stages of plumage, and the birds are very like in youno- and 

 non-breeding plumage, but independent of the much coarser 

 bill and larger size of the present species, already alluded to 

 duhia and minuta both want the conspicuous white transverse 

 bands formed by the tips of the secondary coverts, and the 

 longitudinal band formed by the white patch on the outer webs 

 of the fifth and succeeding primaries in hiaticida. Moreover 

 m duha and minuta there is always a blackish brown 

 spot about the middle of the inner web of the outer tail feather 

 which feather appears to be always white in hiatieula. Aaain' 

 m duhia and minuta, the whole of the shaft of the first primary' 

 except at the extreme tip, is white, while the whole of the shafts 

 of all the rest of the primaries is brown, whereas in hiatieula 

 the shafts of all the primaries are similar, and have nearly 

 the basal halves dark brown, and the rest, except the extreme 

 tips, pure white. If these differences are borne in mind 

 it will be impossible to confound hiatieula with either duhia or 

 minuta. 



If, now, we compare this species with cantiana and mongola 

 we find that both these have the same transverse and longitudi- 



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