310 allen’s naturalist’s library. 
Toiant/s ruftis, Briss. ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 156 
(1885). 
Adult Male iu Breeding Plumage. — General colour above black- 
ish, mottled with chestnut-red, with which each feather is 
notched or margined ; wing-coverts dark brown, with white 
edgings to the feathers, a little broader on the inner webs of 
the greater series, many of the coverts tinged with chestnut, 
especially on the inner greater coverts ; bastard-wing, primary- 
coverts, and quills blackish, the primaries lighter brown on the 
inner web, freckled towards its base, which is whitish, the first 
primary with a white shaft, the rest with brown shafts ; secon- 
daries brown, edged with w’hite, and with a longitudinal sub- 
terminal mark of white along the inner web ; the innermost 
secondaries like the back, blackish notched with rufous ; lower 
back and rump white, mottled with spear-shaped spots of 
black ; the upper tail-coverts barred with black and white or 
chestnut and black; tail-feathers brown or greyish-brown, 
tipped with white and barred across with white, the white bars 
sometimes tinged with chestnut; crown of head chestnut, 
streaked with blackish-brown centres to the feathers, narrower 
on the hind-neck ; a broad chestnut eyebrow ; lores and sides 
of face chestnut, with numerous blackish spots on the former ; 
under the eye a whitish spot ; entire under surface of body 
chestnut, with blackish streaks on the sides of the upper breast ; 
under wing-coverts and axillaries white, with indistinct spots 
on the former, and bars on the latter of dusky brown; quills 
dusky below, with more or less white on the inner webs ; bill 
flesh-colour, dusky on its terminal half ; feet greyish-blue, toes 
darker, claws black; iris brown. Total length, i8'S inches, 
culmen, 2-65; wing, 7-9; tail, 2-8; tarsus, I’S. 
Adult Female. — Similar to the male, but with a longer bill, 
and apparently never becoming so entirely chestnut below or 
on the sides of the face and neck. Total length, 1 6 inches ; 
wing, 8-25. 
Adult in Winter Plumage. — Ashy-brown above with longi- 
tudinal black centres to the feathers, and evident ashy-white 
margins, the wing-coverts like the back, and the white edges 
very strongly marked ; wings and tail as in the breeding 
plumage, but the bars lighter brown and not so black, and 
