Vol. xlii;] 10 



recognisable in the series of both sexes which he exhibited. 

 He made the following remarks : — 



(1) The downy chick. Already described and exhibited 

 (c/. Bull. B. 0. C. vol. xli. pp. 79-80). This represented the 

 protoptile plumage. 



(2) First feather or mesoptile plumage. This is the feather- 

 plumage, which pushes out the down and so has the down 

 attached at the ends of the feathers. The sexes are alike and, 

 as obtains in the Game-birds, the head and chin are still 

 downy, while true feathers clothe the rest of the body, and 

 the wings and tail are fairly well grown. General scheme of 

 the upper parts (including minor wing-coverts) pale chestnut 

 to yellowish brown feathers, irregularly mottled and barred 

 with blackish brown, and with greyish-white edges and tips. 

 Throat and breast isabelline with centres and subterminal 

 crescentic markings of dark brown and whitish tips ; belly 

 black tipped with rusty brown. Feathers of the under- 

 parts are more downy in character. Rump, upper tail- 

 coverts, and tail barred pale yellow and black, as are the 

 tertials ; secondaries blackish brown with pale rufous tips ; 

 primaries dark brown, pale and mottled at the tips : central 

 tail-feathers not elongate. 



(3) Second feather or hemiptile plumage. These feathers 

 are larger, more compact, and more like adult feathers. 

 The mesoptile plumage is gradully moulted. The head and 

 throat now become covered with true feathers for the first 

 time ; either these feathers do not push out any down and so 

 belong to the hemiptile plumage, or else the down breaks off 

 before the feather shoots from the quill, in which case these 

 feathers would morphologically belong to the mesoptile 

 series. I incline to the latter view, as I have found one 

 feather with down still attached. It is easy to realise that 

 the down on these parts might be lost very earl}', owing to 

 the brooding by the old birds. 



So far as can be ascertained, the whole of the body-feathers, 

 including the minor coverts, ai'e rejjlaced by the hemiptile 

 plumage. 



No single specimen would ever show this plumage alone, 

 all were a mixture of this, the preceding, or (and) the adult. 



