NETTA RUFINA. 209 



white gradually increasing in extent on each primary until the innermost 

 primaries are all white with a hroad brown tip. 



Bill vermilion-red ; the nail whitish, tinged pink or sometimes yellowish, the 

 base next the feathers of the forehead and the gape more or less dusky brown 

 except in the oldest birds ; legs and feet orange, orange-red, or dull fleshy-red ; 

 irides deep or light reddish-brown to bright light red. 



" In the adult male the bill is a brilliant crimson, sometimes inchning to 

 vermilion ; the nail brown or white, tinged with brownish horn, or pink horny 

 brown or yellow at tip. There is often a dusky shade round the nostrils ; the 

 gape is often blackish, as is likewise the base of the lower mandible and the basal 

 portion of the membrane between its rami ; but these are all traces, I think, of 

 immaturity. 



" The legs and feet are dingy salmon-colour or reddish-orange, dusky on the 

 joints and blackish on the webs ; but in. slightly younger but full-plumaged 

 birds the legs and feet will be olivaceous-orange, or, lastly, dusky with a reddish 

 tinge. 



" The irides vary from brown to red (this latter being the colour in the old 

 adult) and are at different ages brown, brownish-yellow, reddish-brown, orange, 

 orange-red, and bright red. 



"Length 20-5 to 22-1 inches, expanse 34-0 to 38-2, wing 10-0 to 10-75, 

 tail from vent 3-0 to 4-2, tarsus 1-5 to 1-7, bill from gape 2-3 to 2-42. Weight 

 1 lb, 12 ozs. to 2 lbs. 14 ozs." (Hume.) 



Female. — Above pale greyish-brown distinctly tinged with ochre ; the crown 

 rather darker ; scapulars paler ; the feathers of the upper surface with pale 

 margins, practically absent in the older birds ; the wings paler and duller but 

 otherwise like those of the male, the white being replaced by pale grey or dusky 

 V, hite ; whole lower plumage, under wing-coverts, and axillaries pale greyish- 

 white, yellowish-white, or greyish-ochre, darker on the flanks. 



Bill dusky black, becoming red towards the tip and with the nail still paler, 

 the lower mandible only dark at the base and up the fleshy part in the centre; 

 irides brown or reddish-brown ; the webs and joints darker, often dusky black. 



" In the female the bill is black, reddish or orange towards the tip and 

 more or less along the sides of the lower and edges of the upper mandible." 

 (Hume.) 



" Iris yellow ; bill brownish-red above, fleshy beneath, nail brown ; legs and 

 feet murky yellow." {Legge.) 



" Length 20-1 to 22-0 inches, expanse 33-75 to 37-0, wing 9-0 to 10-25, 

 tail from vent 3-5 to 3-8, tarsus 1-5 to 1-75, bill from gape 2-25 to 2-4. Weight 

 1 lb. 10 ozs. to 2 lbs. 6 ozs." (Hume.) 



" Young male similar to the female, but the darker centres of the feathers of 

 the underparts are brown instead of grey ; back and breast darker brown ; and 

 more indications of a crest." (SeeboJim.) 



The colours of the soft parts are those of the female, the legs and feet being 

 less tinged with red or orange, often of a uniform dull brown, barely tinged on 

 the shanks with reddish ; the irides are plain brown. The bill becomes redder 

 before the full plumage is assumed, but does not become really red or crimson- 

 red until the bird is practically adult. 



