No. 5.1 THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD 115 



PLUMAGE CHANGES OF ELSEYORNIS 

 MELAN0P8. 



The following is a description of a series of Elseyornis 

 melano'ps {cf. Birds of Austr., Vol. III., p. 137, 1913) : — 



Nestling in down. — Crown of head and entire back 

 fawn colour, dotted with black ; a semi-circular black 

 hne across the fore-part of the head from eye to eye, 

 a short line of black on the hinder crown, followed by 

 a semi-circular band of white, a line of black commencing 

 in front of the eye, enclosing the latter, continued and 

 widened out round the hind neck where it forms a collar ; 

 another black band starting on the inner portion of the 

 wing, continued along the sides of the back, dividing 

 the fawn colour and enclosing the tail ; outer portions 

 of the wings and entire under surface white. (January.) 



Young. — Crown of head, back, scapulars, innermost 

 secondaries, and upper tail-coverts pale earth-brown 

 strongly tinted with rufous, with semi-circular dark bars 

 to the feathers which gives a scalloped appearance to 

 the back, the feathers on the head have dark central 

 spots ; lesser, upper and some of the inner median wing- 

 coverts blackish, edged with rufous and spotted with 

 black, others are white on the inner web ; greater series 

 for the most part white with a small amount of earth- 

 brown near the base ; bastard wing, primary-coverts 

 and quills black, secondaries edged with white at the 

 tips, some of the inner ones almost entirely white ; 

 lower back and upper tail-coverts have the downy 

 texture of the nesthng, which is fawn colour dotted 

 with black ; tail-feathers bronzy-brown tipped with 

 rufous ; a broad band from behind the eye encircling 

 the hind neck black, a crescentric patch of white on the 

 nape ; entire under surface white, except a few dark 

 feathers on the chest, which is the first indication of 

 the black band ; the small coverts on the outer edge 

 of the under wing black, margined with white. 

 (February.) 



