332 
BATRACHOSTOMUS MONILIGER. 
more or less mottled with fulvous-grey at the tips ; the outer webs of the primaries with deep rufous and buff 
indentations, and those of the secondaries with mottled bar-like markings of the same ; tertials silvery grey, 
mottled chiefly with blackish and slightly with rufous, the feathers with terminal black spots ; tail crossed with 
five mottled aud vermiculated grey bands, each with an anterior irregular black border, increasing in width towards 
the tip, the extreme tip whitish, preceded by a black spot, outer web of lateral tail-feather chiefly buff-white with 
black bars. 
Loral and frontal plumes tipped and barred with black ; cheeks and throat pale rusty fulvous, with numerous black 
cross pencillings, the feathers just beneath the gape darker than the rest ; feathers across the lower part of the 
fore neck with large white terminal spots, in some of which the portions of the extreme tips and an anterior border 
are black ; beneath from the chest pale fulvous, mottled with blackish, many of the feathers at the sides of the 
breast with the terminal portions pure white, conspicuously marked with black cross pencillings ; abdomen, thigh- 
plumes, and under tail-coverts more fulvous than the breast and less mottled, and crossed with regular black 
lines ; longer under tail-coverts with terminal white spots ; under wing-coverts pallid rust-colour with blackish 
markings ; tarsal plumes pale fulvous, marked with blackish brown. 
Male (British Museum, ex Whyte). Slightly less rufous above than the foregoing, with the black terminal markings 
deeper, and the whitish stipplings across the hind neck clearly defined ; the scapulars with more white, and the 
terminal spots larger, which is likewise the case with the tertials and outer and median w'ing-coverts, the spots on 
the latter preceded by bold black markings ; the light indentations on the outer webs of the primaries larger 
and more albescent ; tail paler in the ground-colour, the bauds the same ; throat and chest less rufous, the white 
breast- spots larger and the black anterior edges bolder. 
This specimen, I conclude, is somewhat older than the foregoing. An adult (?) male, described by Lord Tweeddale in 
his excellent monographic notice (P. Z. S. 1877, p. 442), is similar to the above examples, with the exception of a 
white collar across the hind neck, thus portrayed “ Nuchal plumes with a subterminal white band confined 
between an upper and a terminal dark brown transverse line : a well-defined nuchal collar is thus formed. The 
outer rectrices have pure white marginal spots ; the margins of the white throat- and breast-spots are described as 
dark brown instead of black ; the wiug-coverts are terminated with very bold white spots ; the breast and flanks 
appear to be more rufous than in my specimens ; but the greater development of the white markings pronounce it, 
I think, to be one of the oldest birds yet procured. 
Young male ? It is probable that the young of this sex have a grey or cinereous character from the nest, though the 
plumage may be much mixed with rufous. I have an example (No. 5 in the table of measurements) of a daik 
brown general aspect, with the wing-coverts rufous and with most of the upper plumage mottled with fulvous, 
which I take to be a male, on account of its very pale scapulars, the black tippings of the hind neck and inter- 
scapular region, aud the spotted appearance of the breast above the lower pectoral region where the white black- 
bordered spots exist. In the females I have examined the breast is of a uniform hue from the white necklace down 
to the ventral spot, tings ; there is a pale supercilium, the feathers being tipped with black ; the narial plumes have 
the terminal portions black, as are also the bases of the feathers round the gape ; the tips of the auriculai plumes 
are blackish brown; the lateral scapulars are fulvous-white, with black terminal spots, and the greatei uing- 
coverts have large terminal white spots ; some of the long nuchal feathers are barred with black, with a light edge, 
but there is no further indication of any collar ; the outer webs of the primaries are rusty fulvous ; the under 
surface is rufescent fulvous, the breast mottled with black and tipped with the same ; the white throat-spots have 
an anterior border of black, the white extending to the tip, and the same is true of the ventral and lower flank- 
feathers. I regret to say that the rectrices are wanting in this interesting specimen (No. 5), it having knocked itself 
about while in confinement in Kandy and lost the entire tail. Both in this and the first example described in 
this article there is a very remarkable tuft of downy undeveloped feathers, similar to that well known in the 
Herons, springing from the side just above the femur ; it lies so close to the skin that it is with difficulty detected. 
A presumed immature male described by Lord Tweeddale ( loc . cit.) has a greyish-brown general aspect ; the super- 
ciliary plumes are rusty fulvous on the outer webs and brown on the inner ; a few feathers on the nape slightly 
tipped with white, some with fulvous, forming “a rudimentary uncompleted nuchal collar;” rest of the upper 
plumage somewhat similar to the first specimen above described, but more rufous, and the margins of the white 
spots brown ; the chin and throat are rusty, and the white necklace well developed ; upper pectoral plumes 
rusty, the lower fulvous-grey, broadly tipped with white. The wing in this specimen (which is No. 9 in the 
above Table) is 4-75, a very large dimension indeed for an immature male ; and I have no doubt that some of these 
rufous males are older than has been supposed, and that adults will be found, when a large series has been got 
together, to vary somewhat in the character of their plumage. 
