8 A CATALOGUE OF THE BIKDS 



male of the dark variety, with the exception of the head, which 

 has none of the ash colour ia front. 



The adult female of the second or pale variety has the upper 

 parts brown ; the under parts white, each feather having a dark 

 hrown streak in the centre, which widens into an elongated spot 

 at the tip ; flanks, belly, thighs, and under tail coverts barred 

 transversely with dark brown, the white predominating; head 

 and neck with the feathers white, streaked and largely tipped 

 with brown ; throat white ; tail and quills as in the male ; irides, 

 cere, and feet, yellow. 



The lower figure (Plate I.) represents the darkest complex- 

 ioned individual I have seen of the fii'st or dark variety in the 

 nest plumage. It is of a uniform dark brown, with the occipital 

 feathers slightly tipped with buff, and with a very narrow band 

 of the same colour in front of the head ; the primaries are nearly 

 black, the tail as in the adult; iiides brown; cere and feet, 

 yellow. 



The upper figure (Plate I.) represents an extremely pale com- 

 plexioned individual in the nest plumage. It has the back and 

 scapulars brown, tipped slightly with white ; coverts and second- 

 aries nearly black ; head dull white, both sides with an oblong 

 spot of brown, in which the eyes are situated; a brown band 

 extends across the head in front leaving a pale frontal band, and 

 between the eyes another brown band passes across the occiput ; 

 the whole of the under parts are white or pale buff, with the 

 shafts of the feathers brown ; irides grey ; cere and feet, yellow. 



The adult male in both varieties is at once recognized by the 

 clear ash colour on the head, and the yellow irides; the adult 

 female by the deficiency of this colour on the head, and by the 

 yellow irides ; and the immature male and female may be dis- 

 tinguished by the buff band in front of the head, and brown or 

 grey irides. Specimens occur both in the adult and immature 

 states, in every degree of shade, between the dark and pale 

 varieties. 



The indi^ddual shot at Thrunton "Wood, in the parish of "Whit- 

 tinghum, in 1829, and described by the Hon. H. T. Liddell in 

 the " Transactions of the Natural History Society of JSTcwcastle," 



