184 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIII. 



and sometimes the rump suflPused with bright chrome-buff; edge of 

 the forehead, lores and round the eye grey, produced backwards as 

 far as the nape, when it forms a collar, and on the neck and upper 

 breast below the yellow-ochre chin, throat and ear coverts and sides 

 of the neck ; the grej^ on the breast runs up to the throat in a point 

 and next to the back and breast merges into the colour of those 

 parts. Scapulars pale isabelline brown at the base changing to a 

 grey penultimate band with buff or ochre tips ; wing coverts dull 

 isabelline brown with buff tips, the innermost next the back all buff 

 where visible, shoulder of wing, greater and median primary coverts 

 isabelline-buff with brown shafts and suffused with brown at the 

 tips ; primaries the same and with all but the first three tipped and 

 edged on the inner web with buff, this colour increasing in width 

 towards the innermost primary ; secondaries brown, narrowly edged 

 with buff on the outer webs at the ends and gradually changing in 

 colouration until the innermost are like the scapulars but always 

 with yellow ochre, or chrome yellow, tip, not buff. Below the 

 grey of the lower throat and breast gradually changes on the breast 

 to a beautiful isabelline, purer and more pink than on the back, 

 and covering breast, flanks and abdomen except the centre of the 

 latter, which is black ; under tail coverts white or pale buff with 

 brown bases showing through; axillaries very pale buff, lesser 

 under wing coverts buff, primary coverts brown. Central tail 

 featbers like the back but produced in two long "pins" or fila- 

 ments, which are dusky black; outer tail feathers brown with broad 

 white tips, each succeeding pair having broader tips than the last ; 

 feathers of tarsus buff. 



The range of variation in the colouration of this bird is not 

 great ; the upper parts are always isabelline, sometimes rather 

 darker, sometimes rather lighter ; rarely there is a vinaceous tinge 

 in the back and scapulary region, and more rarely still there is a 

 faint rufus tinge here ; the scapulars themselves may be tipped 

 buffer chrome-yellow and the extent and richness of these spots is 

 the most variable feature in the upper plumage. In a few birds 

 the crown is rather richer and more vinous than the rest of the 

 upper parts. 



Below the general tone varies to the same extent as above, and 

 the richness of the yellow on the throat is sometimes wanting, the 

 chin being somewhat albescent and the rest very pale ; the extent 

 of black on the abdomen is generally about the same but the colour 

 is often more a chocolate brown than a black, and a pure rich black 

 is seldom seen. 



" Irides brown ; bare orbital skin yellowish ; bill pale plumbeous 

 bluish grey or bluish white, always somewhat more dusky towards 

 the tip ; feet pale plumbeous or bluish white, paler towards the 

 upper surface of the toes, and whitish on scales." (Hume.) 



