PALLAS^S GRASSHOPPER-WAHBLER. 103 
numerous enougli for an average young specimen, and the tippings to the 
tail-feathers are too narrow, they being really about '2 inch in breadth. 
Birds with the bright yellowish-buff lower plumage are not spotted, and 
I take this to be the stage into which the nestling moults in October or 
November. In this stage the upper plumage is much brighter, caused by 
the black centres to the feathers being smaller and the margins larger ; 
the rump is almost unstreaked. The black on the rectrices is less in 
extent, and the white tips reduced to the same size as in the adult ; the 
eye-streak, the chin, throat and the whole lower plumage are lively 
yellowish buff, intensifying and becoming warm ochreous on the flanks 
and under tail-coverts. There are no spots, but a few of the feathers on 
the sides of the neck are obsoletely tipped darker, but so slightly as not 
to be noticeable without close inspection. 
From this stage the bird in spring moults into the full plumage. The 
adults, according to Mr. Seebohm (' This/ 1879, p. 13), have both a spring 
and an autumn plumage, diflPering from each other in the colour of the 
underparts; but my large series does not support this view. 
The adults (both sexes seem alike) have the head blackish brown, each 
feather narrowly edged with pale reddish brown. A collar behind the 
nape is reddish brown without marks. This unspotted collar is only seen 
in a very few birds, and I take it to indicate very old birds ; the back, 
scapulars and wing-coverts dark blackish brown, rather broadly edged 
with reddish brown ; the rump reddish brown, without marks ; the upper 
tail-coverts reddish brown, each feather with a large central drop of 
black ; the outer tail-feathers are nearly all black, the rufous margins 
being small. Towards the middle of the tail each pair of rectrices 
becomes progressively less black and more margined with rufous, and the 
middle pair are rufous with a broad shaft-line of black. All the rectrices 
are tipped with white, the breadth of the tips being about "05 of an inch. 
Eye-streak yellowish white ; ear-coverts hair-brown, and a patch below 
the ear-coverts yellowish buff ; chin, throat and centre of abdomen 
whitish; remainder of the underparts delicate buff, darkening on the 
flanks and under tail-coverts ; the wings are brown, the tertiaries being 
edged with whitish, and the other quills with pale rufous-brown. 
As a rule, the underparts are quite unmarked ; but in many birds in 
adult plumage there are a few tiny marks on the feathers of the sides of 
the breast. 
Iris sepia-brown; legs white; bill dark brown; mandible ochraceous. 
(Everett.) 
Length 5*5 inches, tail 2*2, wing 2*3, tarsus *85, bill from gape '7 : the 
second primary is generally equal to the fourth, but sometimes slightly 
longer or shorter; the first primary is rather small, measuring about 
•4 or '5 inch in length. The sexes do not differ appreciably in size. 
