Birds of Celebes: Falcpnidae. 
3 
basal one indistinct; breast much paler and more of a dark wood-brown tone (S. Ce- 
lebes: Platen — C 10707). 
Male. Similar to the female, but the white bars of the under parts more sharjdy defined 
and extending further towards the breast (whereas in the female they form sooner 
into disconnected spots); the brown bars on the under tail-coverts narrower (cf ^ 
ad. S. Celebes — Platen, C 10708; 3 (fcJ» ad. & vix ad. Sarasin Coll., hi. 
S Cg1g1)gs]. 
“Ks gold-yellow; periocular skm and cere green-yellow; bill blue-black; feet 
lemon- (or gold-) yellow” in both sexes (Platen a 13). 
Female in albescent immature plumage. Head, crest and neck fulvous white with dark 
bimm shaft-streaks; the upper parts display a vaiied plumage of sepia and fulvous 
brown, the feathers in general haring dark centres and pale bases and margins; pri- 
maries and secondaries tipped with white; tail pale brown above, white below, 
and crossed with 5 to 6 indistinct dark bands, tip white; whole of under sur- 
face huffy white, streaked from the breast dowmvards with dark brown, which often 
spreads out in a washy manner in lighter brown over much of the jeatben In tins 
specimen the cross-barred feathers of maturity are sprouting at the flanks (S. Celebes 
A male in albescent plumage recently obtained by the Drs. Sarasin at 
Kern a Aug S*** 1893, corresponds with the above description of the female; ear- 
coverts’and mibocular region black; under surface purer white, with fewer and smaller 
brown streaks, here and on the upper surface not showing a pneral wash ot rufous 
apparent on comparison in the other specimen. “Iris yellow; legs and feet yellowish 
grey; bill black, at the base blue” (Sarasin). A second male is much more rufo- 
fulvous in general tint than the other (Macassar, 12. IX. 95: Sarasin Coll.). 
A spechnen in the Leyden Museum (N. Celebes — Faber, 1883) is half in 
albescent plumage, half in adult. Mings and tail as in albescent specimens, undei 
wing-coverts white, some tipped with rufous brown; back, breast, abdomen and thighs 
much as in O ad. 
First plumage. The full-fledged young of this species is not known, but in the cases of 
Spilornis bacha (Java), S. cheela (India) and X spilogaster ^ (Ceylon), young birds of 
each in the first stage of dress have been described or figimed (fechlegcl, Valkv. 
N. I. pi. 22, f. 3; Sharpe, Cat. B. I, 287; Legge, B. Ceylon 1880, 62; Bernstein, 
J. f. 0. 1860, 425), from which it will be seen that the fii’st plumage often perhaps 
always — much resembles that of full matui-ity. AVhetlier young l)irds always assume 
this mature-looking dress on first leaving the nest, and then lose it and put on t e 
immature albescent plumage, and finally recover the adult type of coloration, or, 
whether the members of the genus arc dimorphous when young — both mature- 
plumaged and albescent individuals existing from the nest, — aij ciuestions upon 
which opinion is divided, and facts, unfortunately, are as yet msufficient to allow of 
tlieir being answered. The albescent type of immature jilumage probably occurs in 
all species of the genus. Specimens in this dress are ™ ^ 
cases of S haclia, S. rufipectiis and 8. sulaensis {h J; cl', kScIiL, Valkv. pi. 22, f. 3), 
similar hnmature birds of 5. duM Hume, 5. rntb^rfm-di Shrink, and S. cbeelu 
Lath, have been described (Hume, Str. F. H, 148; Bingham, ib.IX 144; Oates, 
B Brit. Burmah, U, 194; Sharpe, Cat. B. I, 287), and there is a $ specimen of 
8. holospilus Vigors from Mindanao in this plumage in the Dresden Museum 
(Nr. 13822). Gurney considered this to be the second plumage (8), Schlegel and 
Colonel Legge express the opinion that it is a moye or less frequent variation of 
