BATRACHOSTOMUS MONILIGER. 333 



Adult female (British Museum, ex Whyte ; No. 1 in table of measurements). General hue of head, hind neck, back, 

 rump, and wing-coverts dull rufous, darkest on the back and lesser coverts, and very pale on the tertials and outer 

 scapulars, the whole very closely and finely stippled with dark cinereous brown, deepening into a blackish hue on 

 the wing-coverts ; the brown hue of these mottlings overcomes the rufous on the head and hind neck, which parts 

 have an ashen tint ; feathers of the forehead with a small black subterminal spot succeeded by a fine white tip ; 

 across the lower hind neck the feathers are terminated with broad white bars, bounded above and beneath with a 

 black border ; the median row of wing-coverts with the same, without the terminal black border ; greater secondary 

 coverts, an indistinct pale terminal spot, secondaries, and the primaries with their coverts dark ashen brown, 

 mottled at the tips with fulvescent rufous ; the outer webs of the primaries with a deep wavy rufous edge ; tail 

 rufous, crossed with six indistinctly defined mottled bands ; the outer feathers indented outwardly with white, and 

 crossed with black markings on the outer webs ; the extreme tips of the feathers fulvous, preceded by a black edge. 



Loral plumes blackish, rufous at the base ; over the eye a pale undefined streak ; under surface very similar to the 

 upper in hue, as far as the middle of the breast, when the ground-colour becomes fulvous and extends thus to 

 the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; across the throat a band of large terminal white spots bordered by a black 

 edging ; terminal portions of the lower-breast, flank-, and abdominal feathers whitish, with transverse black 

 vermiculations and a border of the same at the tips ; under tail-coverts with a black-bordered terminal white 

 spot ; under wing-coverts rufous, faintly mottled with blackish brown. 



Another example in my collection has the upper surface almost uniform rufous ; there are indistinct mottlings on the 

 scapulars and upper tail-coverts ; the latter have the tips slightly paler than the rest of the feathers ; the crown 

 is rufous-brown, with the long auricular feathers rufous. The nuchal feathers have the white black-bordered bars 

 forming the collar somewhat distant from the tips of the feathers : the scapulars have a terminal black white-tipped 

 spot, the wing-coverts a very large white anteriorly bordered spot on the tips of the outer webs ; the tail is crossed 

 with mottlings of blackish brown gathered into the form of bars, and the penultimate or second lateral feather 

 has the outer web indented with fulvous-white and crossed with black ; supercilium pale fulvous ; the chin is 

 rufescent fulvous ; the chest bright uniform rufous, with the normal white necklace ; on the lower breast the 

 feathers change abruptly on their terminal portions into white, pencilled with black ; the under tail-coverts have 

 a white black-bordered tip ; the abdominal feathers have the middle portions pale fulvous. 



Another in the Poole collection (the specimen mentioned by Layard in his Notes) is very similar to this ; the nuchal 

 collar and necklace are the same, but there are a few black terminal spots on the frontal feathers just behind the 

 long plumes ; the tertials and scapulars are both marked with white terminal spots surrounded by a deep black 

 border ; the chest and breast are very rufous as in the above. I am of opinion that these last two specimens are 

 fully aged females ; they agree in having the upper surfaces almost uniform in their hue, the mottlings being 

 almost obsolete. 

 A similar bird (No. 6 in the table of measurements) is described by Lord Tweeddale, loc. cit. pi. 49. Judging from 

 the minute description of this bird given by his lordship, it corresponds almost feather for feather with the rufous 

 example treated of above ; the tail is perhaps slightly less uniform than in mine, but the upper surface and chest 

 have the same unmarked rufous ground-colour, and the wing-covert spots, nuchal collar, and necklace are likewise 

 to all intents similar. 

 In a second female example noticed by his lordship the rufous is still deeper in tone than in the latter ; the distribution 

 of the white markings the same, but the white bars and terminal rufous-brown fringes of the nuchal-collar plumes 

 are more pronouuced. 



Young. The nestling procured by Mr. Bourdillon and noticed below was probably a female, and is described by 

 Mr. Hume as " a curious little rufous-brown ball with the characteristic bill of the species, and with distinct 

 traces of black terminal bars to the feathers of the upper back and scapular region." 



Obs. At the risk of being wearisome to the most scientific of my readers I have given as complete a series of 

 observations on the plumages of this most remarkable of Ceylonese birds as it was in my power to do. This was, 

 I think, necessary, as there has been so much controversy on the subject of Mr. Hume's presumed new species 

 from Ceylon, B. punctatus, which I have thought expedient to unite with the present. This bird, as will be 

 seen at a glance at the above table of measurements, is most variable in size, irrespective of sex. Some males 

 exceed the average of females ; but the latter will, I think, be found to contain larger birds in their ranks than 

 the former. Blyth's type specimen, sent to him by Layard, was evidently a large female ; while Mr. Hume's (No. 10 

 in the above list), sent to him, I believe, by Mr. Nevill from the south of Ceylon (where I have obtained a similar 

 example), was a very small male. It would take up too much room in my pages to recapitulate Mr. Hume s 

 description of his specimen, and it will suffice to say that it is a grey bird, corresponding exactly in plumage with 

 those above described. Mr. Hume remarks, at page 122 of 'The Ibis' for 1878, "In no adult B. moniliger 



