Adult male. General colour above chestnut, the mantle inclining to creamy-white so as to
separate the hlack head from the back; scapulars chestnut, the longer ones blackish towards the
ends; the lesser marginal wing-coverts ashy-brown; median and greater coverts and rest of the
wings and tail hlack; crown of head and hind-neck, sides of face and sides of neck, as well as
the entire throat and centre of fore-neck, breast, abdomen, and sides of body, chestnut, the chest
ashy-white, extending up the sides of the fore-neck and uniting with the pale mantle; thighs dull
rufous; under tail-coverts black with rufous edgings; axillaries dull rufous, blackish towards the
base; under wing-coverts black, with rufous margins ; quills dusky brown below, slightly more ashy
along the inner webs: “ hill yellow; feet, toes, and claws dark horn-colour, the soles paler; iris
dark brown (PiyewalsM). Total length 11 inches, culmen 1-05, wing 62, tail 4'65, tarsus 1-4.
Adult female. Differs from the male in being ashy-brown instead of chestnut, the brown colour
being slightly washed with rufous-ochre; wing-coverts and quills dark sepia-brown, with paler edges
of ashy-brown, the inner secondaries ashy-brown externally; tail brown; entire crown of head and
hind-neck brownish-black; sides of face dark ashy-brown, the lores and feathers below the eye
mottled with ashy-whitish spots, and the ear-coverts streaked with whitish shaft-lines; cheeks brown,
with rather broad black streaks; under surface of body dull ashy-brown, lighter on the throat, which
shows a few blackish streaks and a distinct dusky malar lin e ; fore-neck and chest darker ashy-brown;
centre of breast, abdomen, and sides of body pale rufous-ochre; under tail-coverts dusky-brown, with
rufous edges; under wing-coverts and axillaries dull ashy-brown, edged with rufous on the extreme
margins; “ bill horn-colour, yellowish towards the tip ” (PtyewalsU). Total length ICio inches,
culmen 0-95, wing 5 7, tail 4-0, tarsus 1-35.
Young males, according to Dr. Pleske, resemble the old females, but have the blackish colour
of the head and hind-neck distinctly and sharply marked off from the colour of the back, and there
are other differences of shade. A specimen in the British Museum, which has not quite completed
its moult, has longitudinal buff centres to the feathers, showing that the nestling it striped on the
upper surface. Dr. Pleske states that, as in M. gouldi, the colours of the male and female nestlings
show distinct characteristics.
The male and female described are in the Seebohm Collection, the former obtained on the
Upper Chuanche, and the female in Kan-su. The latter is figured in the Plate, and the figure of
the male is from a Kan-su specimen in the Seebohm Collection. p j. JJ. S.]