322 JO URNAL, B 0MB A Y NAT URA L HIST. SO CIETY, Vol. XX VI. 



metallic blue-green ; shoulder of wing and coverts furthest frora the 

 back much the same colour as the head. Primaries deep brown ; 

 outer secondaries brown slightly glossed with green on the edge of the 

 outer w^ebs. Lower back white, sometimes pure, sometimes with fine 

 black shaft stripes ; rump and shorter tail coverts purple more or 

 less glossed with blue-green ; longest tail coverts metallic green like 

 the wing. 



Tail cinnamon, darker at tip. 



Under parts brownish-black or dull black, varying considerably in 

 depth and glossed with metallic green on the breast and flanks ; imder 

 tail coverts metallic green with dark bases. 



The extent of metallic colouring on the lower parts varies greatly 

 and in birds in plumage at all worn is practically non-existant whilst 

 in some freshly moulted birds it is well developed. 



A few specimens have the feathers of the rump edged with copper ; 

 the extent of the white on the back varies considerably, and in the 

 specimens first described was absent altogether. 



Variations in tone, tint and depth of colouring are common and 

 aberrant colouration by no means rare as was shewn by Lord Eoths- 

 child in his wonderful picture exhibited at the British Ornithologists' 

 Club on May 9th, 1917. In the series of skins then shewn with this 

 picture included the most extraordinary aberrations, one bird having 

 a black tail, another the breast and low^er parts wholly metallic, a third 

 with the interscapulum blue instead of pmple and so on. tSemi-albino 

 and melanistic varieties are not rare and specimens of these are to be 

 found in the British Museum collection as well as in the Tring 

 Museum. 



Colours of the Soft Parts. ^ — ^Irides hazel-browTi or dark brown ; 

 orbital skin and cheeks bright, smalt blue to brilliant ultramarine 

 blue, or according to Hume, turquoise blue ; bill horny-brown, the 

 culmen, tip and commissure paler yellowish -horny, in some specimens 

 nearly the whole bill being of this colour ; lower mandible pale yellow- 

 ish-horny or horny-grey,; legs yellowish or pale brownish-green, 

 sometimes darker brownish and rarely yellowish-leaden colour ; toes 

 darker and claws dark-horny brown. 



Measurements. — Omitting two very small birds wdth a wing of only 

 9' 7" (246 -3 nun.), these birds are remarkably level in size as is shewn 

 by the following measurements, w^hich are those of a very large series. 

 Wing from 11-4" (289-5 mm.) to 12-4" (319-9 mm.), average 50 birds 

 11-7" (297-1 mm.), tail from 8-4" (215 mm.) to 9-25" (235 mm.) ; tarsus 

 about 3" (76-2 mm.); crest about 3" (76-2 mm.), sometimes up to 3-5" 

 (88-9 mm.) ; bill at front about 2-05" (52 mm.) and from gape about 

 2-2" (55 mm.). 



"Weight, about 5 lbs." (F. M. Bailey). 

 Adidt Female.— Yesbthei'S of head, with short crest of lanceolate 

 feathers black with broad central stiipes and narrow edges of rufous 



