PODARGUS HUMERALIS. 



darker chesnut, white and black ; the feathers covering the nostrils and 

 base of the bill are strong and stiff, with thinly set webs, standing for- 

 wards, those in the centre are barred with dusky white ; the feathers on 

 the forehead are barred with alternate black and Avhite, the latter colour 

 predominating ; the crown and back part of the head are deep chesnut, 

 each feather with a black centre, which is so broad as to give that part 

 nearly a uniform tinge, relieved only by the minuter white tips of each fea- 

 ther ; nape of the neck, upper part of the back, cheeks, throat and breast, 

 dusky white, thickly mottled with black, giving the whole a grey tinge, and 

 having each feather in the centre streaked with black ; these black streaks 

 are broadest on the upper parts, on the throat they are almost only con- 

 stituted by the quills, but on the breast and its sides arrive nearly to the 

 form of blotches ; the belly, vent and flanks are of a paler ground colour, 

 interspersed with markings of pale chesnut, and each with the centre lon- 

 gitudinal stripe of black ; the feathers clothing the thighs are black ; the 

 quills are a deep rich brownish-black, marked on the outer web with irre- 

 gular ochre-yellow and chesnut spots, the inner markings of the first shade 

 assume more the shape of bars ; the secondaries have irregular markings 

 of chesnut, white and black, the black more in a mass along the shaft, and 

 the colours taking the form of alternate bars, according to their predomi- 

 nance ; the wing-coverts are of the general tinge of the body, except those 

 on the side, which are white, closely variegated with a pale chesnut, each 

 with a narrow black central streak, and thus form one of the fulvous bands, 

 distinguishing the species from P. Stanley ahiis. The feathers immediately 

 over this have the central band very broad and deep, and form a more de- 

 cided contrast ; the two or three last or longest have each web marked 

 with irregular white spots, surrounded with an equally irregular darker 

 ring ; the shoulders are deep rich chesnut, with dark centres, the feathers 

 on the turn of the wing having the tips of the outer webs white, which 

 forms the second fulvous band. The tail feathers become gradually nar- 

 rower towards the tips, and decrease in length on each side ; they are nu- 

 merously banded with alternate fascia? of black and chesnut, and black and 

 white. 



