28 
ACCIPITEE VIEG-ATTJS. 
think, the limit of this coloration. It is taken from a bird shot near Trineomalie, containing an egg ready for 
expulsion ; and Mr. Sharpe, with his wide experience of the Acdpitrinse, remarked of this specimen that it was one 
of the oldest he had ever seen. 
1 oung. Iris greenish yellow, sometimes mottled with brown specks ; cere dull brownish green or greenish yellow ; 
eyelid yellowish green ; legs and feet greener in front than in adults ; bill duskier. 
The bird of the year has the head and nape deep brown, tinged with ashen ; a whitish eye- stripe or supercilium ; the bases 
of the nape-feathers white, showing on the surface more or less ; the upper surface is chocolate-brown, edged with 
brownish rufous, brightest on the hind neck (and deeper throughout in the female) ; tips of the secondaries and 
tertials paler than those of the back feathers ; quills barred with dark brown, the interspaces whitish at the inner 
edges ; tail pale smoky, crossed by four bands, as broad as the interspaces, the terminal one at the tip ; the inner 
web of the lateral feathers with 5 or 6 narrow light bars. 
Ihroat and entire under surface buff-white, the chest and upper breast-feathers edged with rufescent buff or yellowish 
buff (in the female) ; a broad throat-stripe and long oval drops on the neck and chest of sepia-brown ; the sides of 
the latter part brownish rufous ; the lower parts with rounder spots of a lighter hue ; flanks barred with rufous- 
brown ; thighs with bold spots of brown ; under tail-coverts narrowly streaked with the same ; under wing-coverts 
buff, handsomely spotted with dark brown. 
Ohs. In this species a great variety of coloration in the plumage of the male is met with between the youngest phase 
and that noticed above of moderately mature birds, but notwithstanding the rufous character of the chest commences 
directly to assert itself, and serves to distinguish it from the opposite sex. By a change of feather in the first year 
the sides of the chest become rufous, the centre of the breast assumes a bar-like form of marking, while the flanks 
and thigh-coverts become regularly banded with rufous-brown. After the next moult the white centre of the chest 
becomes dashed with rufous and ashen streaks, and the flanks and sides of the breast assume their rufous covering, 
and present the appearance described above in not fully matured males ; this is accompanied by the assumption of 
the cinereous upper surface and the consequent disappearance of the rufous edgings. In some birds of the second 
year the chest is striped with rufous, and the surrounding white portions of the feathers washed with the same. 
Malabar specimens are identical in size and character with Ceylonese ; and an example from Chefoo in the British 
Museum corresponds as regards size with birds from Ceylon. 
Distribution. — The Besra was first recorded as a Ceylonese bird by Mr. Holdswortb (7. c.) . It is, however 
a common species in the island, and, as Mr. Holdsworth remarks, may have been the bird referred to by 
and with the shafts dusky ; chest, breast, flanks, and lower parts whitish, barred somewhat narrowly with rufous- 
brown bars edged with rufous ; on the sides of the chest the bars are broadest, and on the abdomen they are wide 
apart ; thighs narrowly barred, the insides more or less tinged with rufous, and a patch of the same on the lower 
part of each flank ; under tail-coverts whitish or rufescent white, banded with narrow pointed bars of brown. 
Examples with marked rufous cheeks have the rufous portions of the lower parts and the under wing-coverts of a 
corresponding intensity. 
demale. Less ashy above, the head and hind neck dark as in the male, and the latter part much edged with rufous in 
some examples ; tail with an additional bar, there being always five on the central feathers ; the markings of the 
under surface are browner, the darker hue predominating on the bars, which are only edged with rufous, and 
which are likewise more pointed than in the male ; the chin and throat fulvous, ■with dark shafts to the feathers • 
under wing-coverts white, barred with dark brown. 
Young (nestling). “ Clothed with white down ; the feathers of the back deep sepia-brown, with rufous margins ; 
breast fulvous fawn, the chest longitudinally streaked with brown, inclining to arrow-head markings on the 
abdomen and to bars on the flanks.” (Sharpe, Cat. Birds.) 
Bird the y ear - Iria P aler yehow than in the adult ; bill paler and yellowish at the base beneath. 
A bove brown, the feathers edged with rufous, and the nape marked with white, arising from the exposed basal portions 
<> t e webs ; crown darker than the hind neck ; quills rufescent w r hite on the inner webs from the notch to base 
bot \ webs conspicuously barred with dark brown ; tail brown, with five or six broadish bands of a darker hue the 
lateral feathers with an additional bar and the inner webs pale. 
Cheeks and ear-coverts brown, striated with whitish ; throat white, with broad mesial brownish stripes ; under surface 
