32 
the obtuse end, with light red and reddish grey over 
green ground, freckled and spotted, mostly at 
lilac-grey spots (Stray Feathers, 1875, p. 367). 
Тһе breeding-season is by no means confined to January. In his * History of the Birds of 
Ceylon, Colonel Legge remarks that Mr. MacVicar has taken the eggs of this species near Colombo 
in May, and I have in my collection a half-fledged young bird procured by Colonel Legge on the 
15ih of September, 1875, at Uva. Не adds that the nest is sometimes placed among the roots of a 
tree on a bank or little eminence, that the eggs are sometimes three in number, and that they 
measure 1:17 to 1:06 inch in length, by 0:77 to 0:74 inch in breadth. 
The adult male and female in spring plumage may be described as follows :—General colour of 
the upper parts russet-brown, most rufous on the upper tail-coverts and least so on the crown; lores 
nearly white; eye-stripe obsolete; lesser wing-coverts russet-brown ; median and greater wing-coverts 
blackish brown, with large white terminal fan-shaped spots; primary-coverts blackish brown, with an 
olive-brown streak on the outer web; tertials russet-brown ; secondaries and primaries brown, 
margined with russet-brown on the outer webs ; tail-feathers russet-brown, the outer pair occasionally 
showing traces of a narrow terminal white margin; ear-coverts nearly white, crossed by two broad 
black bars; underparts white, ornamented on the cheeks, breast, and flanks with large black guttate 
spots; axillaries brown, with white bases; under primary-coverts brown; under secondary-coverts 
white, with nearly black bases. 
The Geocichline markings on the inner webs of the quills are white. 
Bill nearly black; second primary intermediate in length between the eighth and ninth ; tarsi, 
toes, and claws greyish flesh-colour; outer tail-feathers 75 inch shorter than the longest. 
Length of wing 4:1 to 3:8 inches, tail 8-4 to 9:0 inches, culmen :91 to "85 inch, tarsus 1:5 to 1:3 
inch, bastard-primary frequently extending “З to 2 inch beyond the primary-coverts, its exposed 
portion measuring 1:05 to :9 inch. | 
Young in first plumage have раје shaft-streaks to all the small feathers of the upper parts, the 
median and greater wing-coverts are as in adults, but the whole of the underparts are suffused with 
brownish buff and the spots are very obscure. The Geocichline markings on the inner webs of the 
quills are as in adults. 
In newly moulted autumn plumage the brown of the upper parts is very russet. 
The figure of the adult in the Plate is that of a male in my collection shot at an elevation of 
200 feet above the level of the sea on the Sittawak ganga, a large affluent of the Kelani ganga, which 
enters the sea near Colombo, on the 9th of August, 1876, by Colonel Legge, and is of the size of 
life. Тһе same example is figured two-thirds of the size of life in Legge's * Dirds of Ceylon. The 
figure of the nestling on my Plate is that of the young bird already mentioned as having been 
procured by Colonel Legge on the 15th of September, 1875, near Uva. 
