Page:Stray feathers. Journal of ornithology for India and its dependencies (IA strayfeathersjou11873hume).pdf/335

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Notes. pure white ; the leofs are long, the tarsi thickly clothed with white feathers j the crown of the head and nape yellowish brown,

umber brown; from the occiput spring- six or eig-ht brown feathers, foi-ming a pendant crest the whole of the upper parts of the l3ody are of a dark umber-brown the ridge of the wings is each feather with a paler margin mixed

with

elong-ated dark the tail is long, of a deep clove-brown colour, with seven narrow black bars, the tip white ; the feet are yellow, the toes i-eticulated as far as the last phalange, and armed with, powerful sharp and crooked claws, particularly those of the inLength about twenty inches; the wings, terior and hind toes. when closed, appear to reach about one-half the length of the tail ; the first quill is narrow and short, the fourth and fifth

white



the longest in the wing. A. O. H.

 

Four eggs of the NICOBAR MEGAPODE, recently sent me, are long cylindrical ovals, in shape recalling the eggs of sand They measure from 3 'IS to 3-4 in length and from 2-05 grouse. One previously sent me, by Mr. Ball, meato 2"1 in breadth. sured 3-33 by 2-12.

At first sight they remind one somewhat of large turtle eggs. The shell is very stout and coarse and the eggs look much as if they were carved out of fine sandstone. All the eggs I have seen varied in colour from a pale slightly pinky brown stone colour, The eggs are of course to a moderately warm pink-stone colour. utterly devoid of gloss, as they are also of all markings, but in some of the eggs, numerous little depressions are filled with a white chalky film, giving them the appearance of being spotted with white. birds recently sent me for identification by L. ManEsq., of Lebong, is a beautiful specimen of indicator xanI already possess this species from Huzara in the THONOTUS. far west, so that rare as it has hitherto been considered, the yellow-backed honeyguide has a range in the Himalayas,

Amongst

delli,

from the borders of Afghanistan to those of Bhotan. Dr. Jerdon must, I think, have described either an immature bird or a female. The wing, which he gives at 3"38, has varied in the specimens I have seen from 3-6 to 3'8 j and the bill at front which he notes as 0*25, has in no one of the three specimens I have

at aii^ rate 