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easy of access: feeding entirely on the ground, hopping about quite silently, and seldom taking 
wing. | 
The adult male and female may be described as follows :— 
ur of the upper parts slaty-brown, shading into russet-brown on the crown and 
General colo 
median and greater 
forehead; lores brown; eye-stripe obsolete; lesser wing-coverts slaty-brown ; 
wing-coverts brown ; primary-coverts brown; tertials brown ; secondaries and primaries brown; tail 
feathers dark brown; ear-coverts brown, with pale shafts ; chin and throat nearly white, separated 
from the cheeks, which are coloured like the ear-coverts, by rather obscure dark brown malar stripes ; 
rest of underparts white, shading into slaty-grey on the flanks, sides of breast, and under tail-coverts, 
with dark brown terminal guttate spots on the breast-feathers, and with large white terminal wedges 
on the under tail-coverts ; axillaries dark brown, with white bases and very narrow white margins ; 
lower primary-coverts dark brown; lower secondary-coverts white with brown bases. 
Geocichline markings on inner webs of quills, white, slightly suffused with buff. 
Bill dark brown; second primary intermediate in length between the sixth and seventh; legs, 
feet, and claws pale brown ; outer tail-feathers very slightly shorter than the longest. 
Length of wing 5:75 to 5:1 inches, tail 3-7 to 9'1 inches, culmen 1:6 to 13 inch, tarsus 1:4 to 
1:25 inch; bastard-primary projecting far beyond the primary-coverts, its exposed portion measuring 
17 to 155 inch. 
Young in first plumage are browner than the adults, and have buff shaft-streaks on the head 
and tawny-buff fan-shaped spots on the wing-coverts; the lores are tawny-buff, and the ear-coverts 
dark brown with tawny-buff shaft-streaks; throat and underparts orange-buff, mottled with black 
spots. 
The chief figure in the Plate represents an adult example from my collection, obtained in 1873 
by Mr. Mandelli near Darjiling. The young bird in first plumage was formerly in the Eyton 
Collection and is labelled “ Himalayas.” Both are drawn life-size. 
The type was figured life-size in 1832 (Gould, Century of the Birds of the Himalaya Mountains, 
plate xxii.), but the figure leaves much to be desired. ‘The shape of the bill is entirely wrong, and 
the artist has inserted some scutellations on the tarsi, which are not found in the species. 
