148 IXDIAX DICKS. 



Genus CHAULELASMUS. 



This ^('iius is i-eninrk;ibly t'l()>(' to ^\ii((s. jiiid iiii^hr ;tlni(i>t iiioi'c con- 

 veniently c'onio hetween Aiixs and Kidu^ffd i-atlier than hctwccn IJiniiHtd 

 and Mareca or J\ettiojt. It diftcr> from A/uts in lia\in^- the hill jiro- 

 })ortionately rather shorter and sniaUer, from JumeltK in not havino- tlie 

 long iiuier secondaries sickle-slia[)ed, and from Mureca and 2\elt'w)i in 

 havintJ" the lamell?e o£ the maxilla or ii|)[)er niandil)le vcm'v prominent : it is 

 also of course, as far as the Indian s[)ecies is concerned, a liiiiocr hird than 

 any species of tlie two last-mentioned genera. 



There are only two species of the present genu— oui- hii-d. tlie (iadwali, 

 and Chaulelasmua coiiesi, a smaller hird, confined to the Washington and 

 New York Inlands and the Fanning group-, a hird of which very little is 

 yet known. 



(26) CHAULELASMUS STREPERUS. 

 THE GAD WALL. 



Chaulelasmus streperus, .Trrdon, B. I. iii, p. 802 ; Hume, Sir. Feath. vii, 

 p. 115; id. Cat. no. 901; Scidly, Str. Feath. viii, p. 362; Ihnne 4" 

 Mar. Game-B. iii, p. 181 ; Oates, Birds of Brit. Burrn. ii, p, 283; Barnes, 

 B. of Bom. p. 405; SaJvadori, Cat. B. M. xxvii, p. 221 ; Blanford, 

 Famia B. I. iv, p. 440; Oates, Game-B. ii, p. 234 ; Deivar, Jour. 

 B. i\. H. 8. xvi, p. 498. 



Description. Adult luals.— Head and neck whitish, riifous-wliite, or dull 

 rufous, densely speckled with brown, except on the chin, which is almost pure 

 white in highly plumaged birds ; the anterior portions of the head nearly always 

 lighter than the posterior iu ground-colour, whicli shades oflF into brown of the 

 nape, on which the darker spots hardly show ; lower neck, back, and scapulars 

 deep blackish-brown to dark rufous-brown, every feather beautifully waved with 

 white crescentic lines ; lower back darker, with fewer and finer verniiculations. 

 sometimes almost unmarked, changing into the black of the rump and upper tail- 

 coverts ; central rectrices grey, outer ones rufous-grey with almost wliite edges, 

 generally increasing in width to the outermost ones ; breast, sides of the body, 

 and flanks like the back, but the breast more boldly marked with tlie dai-k and 

 light, and the vent and flanks more finely so : rest of the abdomen, &c., white; 

 under tail-coverts typically the same velvety black as the upper, but often 

 splashed with patclies of black and white vermiculations ; the smallest wing- 

 coverts like the scapulars ; the median and primary greater coverts chestnut, 

 with the bases brown aud white, sometimes showing ; greater coverts next the 



