THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 39 



the secondaries, which are almost entirely white with an occasional 



spot of black. Innermost secondaries like the back ; tail-feathers 



coarsely freckled with black on a white ground and crossed with 



four distinct bars of blackish, which are very pronounced on the 



basal half of the tail, which is white without any blackish freck- 



lings, the outer feathers broadly tipped with creamy white ; crown 



of head, nape and hind neck brown, mottled with streaks and 



edgings of sandy buff, with a few blue-grey feathers intermixed ; 



lores and sides of crown pale and sandy buff, streaked with dark 



brown; feathers above and round the eye uniform creamy bu.ff; 



sides of face, ear-coverts, cheeks and throat light bluish grey, 



which is bordered by a broad band of black extending from, the 



sides of the hind neck diagonally across the latter and uniting in 



a broad band which runs down the centre of the lower . throat ; 



around the hind neck and occupying the sides of the latter is a 



broad extent of black which unites on the upper foreneck ; this is 



bordered above by a broad band of white which encircles the hind 



neck, separates the black on the sides of the neck, and descending 



on the latter to the lower throat, unites there in a point ; across 



the lower foreneck a broad black band, which is separated from 



the lower throat by a band of white which traverses the foreneck 



also ; remainder of undersurface pure white ; sites of the upper 



breast sandy-coloured and mottled with black like the upper parts ; 



underwing coverts, axillaries and quill-lining pure white. 



Adult Female. — Whole upper surface rich buff or rufous buff, 

 vermiculated with black and with black central lines here and 

 there widening into blotches ; on the hind neck the markings 

 are very fine and the buff replaced by brown ; the black markings 

 on the crown form irregular bars ; lesser wing coverts like the 

 back but less profusely marked with black, median coverts the 

 same but with still less black and with the buff becoming almost 

 Avhite at the tips, greater coverts white with dark brown or blackish 

 shaft streaks and with a few scattered specks and spots of black 

 which become regular subterminal bars on the innermost ; pri- 

 maries dark brown mottled with white at the tips and with white 

 bases, concealed on the outermost but increasing in extent until 

 the innermost are nearly all white, outer secondaries white, with 



