10 CIECUS MELANOLEUCUS. 



its character, is put on at one final moult. Adult males are always to be found in the perfecl pied dress without 

 any intermingling of immature characteristics pointing to a gradual assumption of the black-and-white livery. 

 There is, however, much to be learnt concerning the plumage of this species, particularly in respect to the females, 



and a thorough knowledge of it can only be attained by means of the acquisition of a large series of carefully 

 Sexed and dated specimens. 



Adult female. The wing,in 10 examples measured by .Mr. Hume, \aried from I : i - 7" i<> I">"1 indie- >,und the tarsus from 

 3-05 to 3-3. 



it is a matter of difficulty to determine in this species which type really represents the fully adult female. The 

 following are the dimensions and description of a female shot by myself near Trineomalie, which 1 have compared 

 with examples in the British Museum, and which Mr. Sharpe considers to be fully mature : — 



<i. Length to front of cere IT'S inches ; culmen from cere OS ; wing 14 ; tail 9*5 ; tarsus 3 - l ; mid toe 1/6, claw ( st might) 

 0-67. 



Iris citron-yellow- ; cere gamboge-yellow; bill dark horn, bluish at the gape and the base beneath; legs and feet 

 gamboge-yellow. 



Head and upper surface, with the wing-coverts and tertials, a subdued though glossy sepia-brown j the longer scapulars 

 with a greyish bloom ; the crown-feathers margined with rufous, and the hind neck with dull whitish, not extending 

 to the tips ; edge of forehead,, above the eye, and the face whitish ; the lesser coverts, from the shoulder along the 

 flexure of the wing, pure white, with brown mesial stripes, gradually extending over the feathers on the succeeding 

 series; winglet, primary and greater coverts, shorter primaries, and the secondaries silvery grey, barred with 

 brown, the subterminal baud broad, and the tips of the feathers dull white ; longer primaries darker brow n. barred 

 with the hue of the tips, and the interspaces of the outer webs greyish; inner edge of all the quills towards the 

 base white: upper tail-coverts almost unmarked white; tail above greyish, with four dark bars, the subterminal 

 one some distance from the tip, which is pale ; the interspaces of the two outer feathers towards the base white, 

 and the bars on that part rufous. 



Chin and gorge whitish, striped from the gape round to the ear-coverts with rufous brown ; ruff white, with broad 

 brown central stripes ; under surface and under wing white, the fore neck and chest with bold dashes of brown, 

 almost confluent on the sides of the neck, and diminishing to mesial stripes of a more rufeseent hue on the 

 breast, the lower parts having shaft-lines of the same ; lower series of the under wing-coverts with rufeseent 

 brown bars, the rest with rufous shaft-lines ; lower surface of tail dull whitish, the bars showing indistinctly. 



b. An example in the British Museum, from the collection of Capt. Pinwell, is marked as a female and is in the 

 following plumage : — 



Mantle glossy dark clove-brown, much deeper than in the above ; centres of frontal, occipital, and hind-neck feathers 

 blackish brown, those of the first-named parts edged with rufous, of the latter with a paler or fulvescent 

 hue ; the outermost series of greater wing-coverts silvery w : hite, crossed with broad bands of dark clove-brown ; 

 secondaries, shorter primaries, and their coverts of the same ground-colour, with blackish bars ; 1st, 2nd, and 3rd 

 quills with the terminal portions brown, barred with a darker hue on both webs ; internal portion of the inner 

 webs of all the quills white ; tail dusky silvery grey, crossed with five clove-brown bars, those on the lateral 

 feathers gradually changing into rufous. 



■Sides of the throat, together with the posterior part of face and ear-coverts, rufeseent, with dark shaft-stripes : ruff 

 whitish, striped with dark brown; chest fulvescent whitish, the feathers with broad rufous-brown centres; beneath, 

 from the chest pure white, the breast with light rufous-brown stripes, decreasing in width to lines on the abdomen, 

 lower flanks, and under tail-coverts. 



06s. This example differs from the Tamblegam bird in being darker as regards the brown plumage, and paler as 

 regards the grey colouring of the wing-coverts ; while the rufous edgings of the bead and throat-feathers are more 

 brought out, which latter characteristic savours of youth, in spite of the apparently more adult coloration of the 

 back and wing-coverts. 



It is in much the same dress as an "adult" female described by Mr. Hume in his excellent and exhaustive article 

 already referred to. Another obtained by Col. Godwin- Austin in Assam, and described by Mr. Gurney (Ibis, 

 1876, p. 130), is darker than either of these — "the entire mantle being blackish brown, increasing in intensity 

 as it approaches the tips of the lower scapulars, which are almost black ; the wings show a remarkable 

 approach to the plumage of the adult male, but the band which extends across the wing-coverts, instead of being 

 black, is dark chocolate-brown, varied by some of the brown feathers passing, in part, into a decided black." 



It is probable that each of the above examples were sufficiently mature to breed ; but it does not follow that the 

 darkest birds were the oldest. My bird had the ova developing, and would have bred in the succeeding June, and 



Colonel Godwin-Austen's bird measures, according to Mr. Gurney, 15-8 (' Ibis,' 1876, p. 131). 



