The = pileus = is wood brown to fawn, clay color or isabelline color. ❋ George Francis Atkinson (1886)
All the birds, reptiles, and insects of Sahara, says Canon Tristram, copy closely the grey or isabelline colour of the boundless sands that stretch around them. ❋ Grant Allen (1873)
To begin with, all the smaller denizens of the desert -- whether butterflies, beetles, birds, or lizards -- must be quite uniformly isabelline or sand-coloured. ❋ Grant Allen (1873)
-- Cinereous above, white below; the colour varies from pure ashy grey to grey with an isabelline tinge. ❋ Robert Armitage Sterndale (1870)
-- General colour sandy, more or less mixed with dusky; pale isabelline on the sides; no grey on rump; tail dark brown above; ears without black tip; lower parts white; fur soft and long; fore-legs very pale, brown in front; hind-legs still paler, brown outside. ❋ Robert Armitage Sterndale (1870)
-- Fur long and full, pale, sandy mouse-coloured above, isabelline below; pale on the well-clad limbs, and also on the tail laterally and underneath. ❋ Robert Armitage Sterndale (1870)
I made the following notes regarding them: Fur very fine, close and silky, rufescent brown, more rufous on the head, isabelline below; feet flesh-coloured, hinder ones large, much larger than those of the ❋ Robert Armitage Sterndale (1870)
-- Pale sandy brown; almost isabelline on back and sides; rump greyish-white; tail black above; face and anterior portion of the ears concolorous with back; terminal portion of ears black outside at the edge; breast light rufous; lower parts white; fur fine, close and soft; fore-legs in front, and hind-legs outside, with a light brownish tinge. ❋ Robert Armitage Sterndale (1870)
-- Pale yellowish or whitish isabelline, with small spots on the head and neck, but large blotchy rings and crescents, irregularly dispersed on the shoulders, sides and haunches; from middle of back to root of tail a medium irregular dark band closely bordered by a chain of oblong rings; lower parts dingy white, with some few dark spots about middle of abdomen; limbs with small spots; ears externally black; tail bushy with broad black rings. ❋ Robert Armitage Sterndale (1870)
Hence, without exception, the upper plumage of every bird, whether lark, chat, sylvain, or sand-grouse, and also the fur of all the smaller mammals, and the skin of all the snakes and lizards, is of one uniform isabelline or sand colour. " ❋ Alfred Russel Wallace (1868)
