OF THE TRAVANCORE HILLS. ood 
colour pervades portions of the vent feathers and lower tail 
coverts. 
Later again the whole head, nape, and sides of neck, become 
a warm fawn brown, all the feathers now shewing narrow, 
blackish, shaft stripes. The lower parts are still chiefly white, 
but almost all the feathers of the breast and abdomen have a 
more or less triangular, brownish, fawn-coloured spot at the tip, 
and shew a tendency to a dark shaft stripe ; and in some birds, 
at this time several of the feathers of the lower throat have 
conspicuous narrow black shaft stripes. The sides become 
fawn brown, though the feathers still are mottled white at the 
bases and the shafts are darker; the thighs, vent feathers, and 
lower tail coverts are now a warm, but brownish fawn colour, 
somewhat irregularly barred with white; the tail has now only 
four bands besides the sub-terminal one, which has become con- 
spicuously broader. [Sometimes the young bird, before exhi- 
biting any black streaks on the side of the neck or on 
the throat, becomes a nearly uniform warm fawn colour on the 
entire lower surface, and even retains this plumage until it 
has acquired the adult tail. I do not understand this, it is 
certainly none of the normal stages from the nestling to ma- 
turity, but as it occurs it is necessary to record it. ] 
Then (to return to the normal stage of progression), the 
black striping of the head, back, and sides of the neck, becomes 
more conspicuous; a black central throat stripe begins to be 
indicated, the warm fawny tint of thighs and vent becomes 
replaced by a wood brown, the black shaft stripes of the breast 
become more oval, and the tail begins to approach the normal 
type with only three transverse bars besides the sub-terminal one. 
Gradually the brown of the vent and flanks creeps up to the 
lower breast ; the breast spots grow larger and larger, and ulti- 
mately the white margins of the feathers almost wholly assume 
the brown tint of the abdomen. The entire white chin and 
throat have the feathers so broadly striped, centrally, with black, 
that only just enough white peeps through to give indications 
of a separation between a black throat stripe, and two broad 
black moustachal stripes. 
The brown of the head and sides of the neck, though still 
warm, has lost the fawny tinge of the younger stages, and the 
black centres of the feathers have greatly increased in size. 
The tail has a very broad terminal band, of say 1°8 and 
interspace of 2, and three other bands each about an inch 
broad. The crest quite black and untipped, grows to a great 
length ; in one specimen before me it is over 4°75 inches long. 
While these changes have been going on, the whole upper 
plumage has been growing darker. 
