62 
SPILORNIS SPILOGASTER, 
to “ citron ; ” gape greenish yellow ; bill bluish at cere and base, darkening at the tip to blackish ; legs and feet 
citron-yellow (usually much stained). 
Fully adult plumage. Porehead, crown, and elongated occipital feathers more or less overlying the entire hind neck 
jet-black, with the basal two thirds of the feathers white and concealed beneath the black portions, and the tips 
almost always faintly tipped with fulvous ; cheeks and ear-coverts more or less blackish grey, according as the 
throat is light or dark, blending into the adjacent black ; hind neck, back, rump, scapulars, wing-coverts, and 
tertials dark neutral brown, with a strong purplish lustre, particularly on the upper back and scapulars ; lower 
part of hind neck paler than the back ; upper tail-coverts tipped with white ; least wing-coverts, including the 
winglet, with two terminal white spots on each feather ; greater wing-coverts tipped white at the outer feathers ; 
terminal portion of the primaries and secondaries (about 2| inches of the former), a narrow band across the centre 
of the feathers, and another near the base blackish brown, with a purple lustre, the interspaces smoky brown on 
the outer webs, gradually paling to white internally, the whole band showing whitish beneath ; secondaries and 
shorter primaries tipped with white ; winglet blackish brown, tipped with white, and barred near the base of the 
inner webs with the same ; tail with a two-inch terminal band, and a second, nearly as broad, on the basal half 
purplish black ; an equally broad interspace of dusky whitish, more or less clouded with light brown, and the space 
between the second band and the coverts paler, but not conspicuously lighter than the band ; all the caudal 
feathers tipped with white. 
Loral and rictal plumes black ; chin and gorge iron-grey, more or less dark according to the individual, in some almost 
as pale as the fore neck, which, together with the chest and under surface, varies from a light earth-brown to a 
chocolate-colour, paling always slightly towards the belly and under tail-coverts ; the feathers of the breast, flanks, 
belly, and thighs with a series of roundish, opposite white spots surrounded by a dark edge ; on the under tail- 
coverts, and in some specimens on the thighs, the spots develop into bars, either continuous or interrupted at the 
shaft ; under wing-coverts, as in the young stages, variable, the ground-colour of the lesser series usually more 
rufous than that of the breast and covered with large white spots, which, near the tip, predominate over the brown ; 
greater series dark brown, spotted like the rest ; edge of the wing unspotted white. 
Mature plumage. In this phase the lower feathers of the crest are tipped with fulvous, and in some the basal portion 
washed with the same; the cheeks, ear-coverts, and chin are darker than in old birds; the scapulars, median 
wing-coverts, and rump-feathers are tipped with white ; winglet more conspicuously tipped than in the above ; 
markings of quills and caudal feathers much the same ; sometimes the secondaries are terminated with brown, 
adjacent to the white tip, and occasionally there is a remnant of white mottling above the central tail-bar. 
Under surface chocolate-brown, the fore neck darker, blending into the blackish-grey hue of the throat, and the 
feathers slightly edged with fulvous ; lower parts darker than in the fully adult, the edging round the spots deeper, 
and these latter, therefore, more conspicuous ; under wing-coverts dark like the breast, the spots on the lesser 
series smaller than in old birds ; external edge of wing-lining sometimes unmarked white, at others striped or 
barred, like the rest of the feathers, with brown ; under surface of tip of tail showing more white than the upper. 
Obs. Great variation exists, particularly in this latter stage, in the markings of the under surface, although there is, 
as in the coloration of the throat, a certain similarity of type, which distinguishes the species from some of the 
more eastern forms. As regards the spots, in birds of the same age and with similar upper-surface plumage, they 
are in some examples very large and darkly bordered, in others small, and then, of course, more of them on each 
feather, the edge being sometimes scarcely darker than the ground of the feathers ; in others, again, they are more 
bar-shaped than circular. There is, in this mature stage, sometimes an indication of fulvous cross-marking near 
the tips of the chest-feathers ; but I have never seen it in a fully old, completely black-crested bird. In some 
specimens much more of the hind neck is blacker than in others, the sides of this part being black right round to 
the throat. Hill examples of the larger race are blacker on the chin and throat than the small birds of a like age. 
This is a peculiarity I have observed in 4 specimens at Norwich, 4 in Mr. Bligh's collection, and 2 in my own. 
Young (bird of the year). Iris greenish yellow, sometimes with a brown inner circlo, in one specimen I have seen 
(as also in that referred to by Mr. Blyth, l. c., as drawn by a Mr. Moogaart) white ; cere, gape, and loral skin 
greenish yellow ; bill dark horn-colour, the tip blackish ; legs and feet pale yellow. 
The white eye appears to be an abnormal, though doubtless not an unfrequent feature. 
Head and elongated occipital feathers dusky fulvous, the feathers with an extensive subterminal blackish-brown patch 
and deep tips of buffy white, the bases white ; interscapular region, wing-coverts, and scapulars rich sepia-brown, 
with a purplish lustre, becoming paler on the rump and upper tail-coverts, the feathers tipped with fulvous grey, 
least so on the lesser wing-coverts, which are darker than the median series ; these and the greater coverts tipped 
