green ground, freckled and spotted, mostly at the obtuse end, with light red and reddish grey over
lilac-grey spots (Stray Feathers, 1875, p. 367).
The breeding-season is by no means confined to January. In his ‘ History of the Birds of
Ceylon,’ Colonel Legge remarks that Mr. MacVicar has taken the eggs of this species near Colombo
in May, and I have in my collection a half-fledged young bird procured by Colonel Legge on the
15th of September, 1875, at Uva. He adds that the nest is sometimes placed among the roots of a
tree on a bank or little eminence, that the eggs are sometimes three in number, and that they
measure 1T7 to 1'06 inch in length, by 0'77 to 0-74 inch in breadth.
The adult male and female in spring plumage may he described as follows ¡—General colour of
the upper parts russet-brown, most rufous on the upper tail-coverts and least so on the crown; lores
nearly white; eye-stripe obsolete; lesser wing-coverts russet-brown; median and greater wing-coverts
blackish brown, with large white terminal fan-shaped spots; primary-coverts blackish brown, with an
olive-brown streak on the outer web; tertials russet-brown; secondaries and primaries brown,
margined with russet-brown on the outer webs; tail-feathers russet-brown, the outer pair occasionally
showing traces of a narrow terminal white margin; ear-coverts nearly white, crossed, by two broad
black bars ; underparts white, ornamented on the cheeks, breast, and flanks with large black guttate
spots; axillaries brown, with white bases; under primary-coverts brown; under secondary-coverts
white, with nearly black bases.
The Geocichline markings on the inner webs of the quills are white.
Bill nearly black; second primary intermediate in length between the eighth and ninth; tarsi,
toes, and claws greyish flesh-colour; outer tail-feathers -3 inch shorter than the longest.
Length of wing 4 1 to 3 8 inches, tail 3-4 to 3'0 inches, culmen -91. to -85 inch, tarsus 1-5 to 1-3
inch, bastard-primary frequently extending -3 to -2 inch beyond the primary-coverts, its exposed
portion measuring I*05 to '9 inch.
Young in first plumage have pale shaft-streaks to all the small feathers of the upper parts, the
median and greater wing-coverts are as in adults, but the whole of the underparts are suffused with
brownish buff and the spots are very obscure. The Geocichline markings on the inner webs of the
quills are as in adults.
In newly moulted autumn plumage the brown of the upper parts is very russet.
The figure of the adult in the Plate is that of a male in my collection shot at an elevation of
200 feet above the level of the sea on the Sittawak ganga, a large affluent of the Kelani ganga, which
enters the sea near Colombo, on the 9th of August, 1876, by Colonel Legge, and is of the size of
life. The same example is figured two-thirds of the size of life in Legge’s ‘ Birds of Ceylon.’ The
figure of the nestling on my Plate is that of the young bird already mentioned as having been
procured by Colonel Legge on the 15th of September, 1875, near Uva.