130 



tudinaliter maculato : corpore subtus reliquo fulvo, vix aurautiaco tincto, plumis omnibus brunneo 

 marginatis : subalaribus et subcaudalibus aurantiaco-fulvis. 



2 juv. similis feminae adultse, sed supra cinerascens, dorso conspicue fulvo maculato : plumis corporis subtus 



albido marginatis et rnagis conspicue brunneo transnotatis. 



3 juv. praecedenti simillimus, sed tectricibus alarum semper saturatioribus, nigricantibus vix cyanescenti- 



cinereo nitentibus. 



Young Male. Head and neck ashy brown, with edgings of pale fulvous or white to all the feathers; rest of 

 the upper surface of the body darker brown, with very broad margins of fulvous white to each of the 

 feathers; centre of the back white, this colour being obscured and much concealed, only the base of 

 each feather being white, the apical portion being greyish brown with a fulvous margin at the tip ; upper 

 tail-coverts clear cinnamon, with a brownish bar near the tip of each feather, which has a terminal mar- 

 gin of white ; tail itself clear cinnamon, very narrowly tipped with white, the two centre feathers ashy- 

 brown, a shade of this colour being also apparent towards the tips of some of the other feathers ; wing- 

 coverts blackish, with a shade of iron-grey, all the feathers very conspicuously margined with fulvous 

 white ; quills greyish brown, inclining to black near the tip, the margins to the feathers being of a pale 

 brown colour, shading into fulvous white at the tip; lores and feathers round the eye whitish; ear- 

 coverts fulvous brown, with a faint shade of rufous; cheeks and sides of the face and neck fulvous, each 

 feather crossed by an irregular bar of brown before the tip, which is whitish, thus producing a strongly 

 mottled appearance ; chin and centre of the throat whitish, very slightly mottled with the brown line 

 across the feather, this being in most cases entirely obsolete ; rest of the under surface of the body 

 orange rufous, all the feathers margined with whitish, and transversely vermiculated with a single 

 crescentic line of brown, which is more irregular on the abdomen, sometimes being represented simply 

 by two spots on the tip of each plume; these crescentic markings are absent on the under wing- and 

 tail-coverts, which are merely margined with whitish at the tips of the feathers; bill deep horn-brown; 

 legs brownish black. Total length 8'5 inches, culmen 09, wing 4 - 9, tail 2 - 6, tarsus 1"15. 



Obs. The bird from which the above description has been taken is a young male from Italy forwarded to 

 us by Mr. W. Schliiter, of Halle. He has sent us at the same time two young females in the same 

 mottled plumage : they may, however, be distinguished from the male, even at this early age, by the 

 absence of a white dorsal patch, and the other differences noticed below. 



Obs. The absence of dates to all the young specimens prevents us from stating their ages approximately ; 

 but they seem to be young birds of the year in full winter plumage ; but whether on emerging from this 

 winter dress the males don their full blue livery we are unable to say. Mr. Howard Saunders, however, 

 possesses a specimen obtained in the Sierra Nevada in April 1871, which, although possessing a blue 

 head and partial white back as well as the orange under surface of the adult, still exhibits on the throat 

 and sides of the neck remains of the spotted plumage. In the collection of Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun., is 

 another specimen, unfortunately undated, which is not so far advanced and shows the blue appearing on 

 the head and the orange on the breast, so far as we can see, by a change of colour in the feather and not 

 by a direct moult. 



A bird in Sharpe's private collection of African birds from Bissao is in winter plumage, and seems to be in 

 partial change from the young to the adult livery, which latter it has nearly assumed ; the wings, how- 

 ever, are still brown, and oidy a few of the coverts have as yet assumed any iron-grey tint. The lower 

 back as well as the underparts still show traces of the young mottled plumage. This would seem to 

 indicate the correctness of our supposition that it is in the first winter that the young bird gains his 



