AN INTERESTING BIRD. 659 



pale-pink eyelid (whence tlie name "sore-eyed pigeon"). The bill 

 was black, conical, and very strong ; the nostrils oval, placed at about 

 the centre of the bill, and directed fore-and-aft. Covering just half 

 of the nostril on each side was the curved anterior edge of a saddle- 

 shaped horny sheath (Fig. 2), also black, and bestriding the posterior 

 half of the bill. The pommel of the saddle was canted upward, so as 

 to clear the bill by about three-tenths of an inch ; its cantle was lost 

 in the short feathers covering the forehead, and the flaps continued 

 downward on each side, becoming soldered to the upper mandible 



Fig. 2. Head op Chionis Minor. 



near its base. On each side they sent up a black fleshy process (ca- 

 runcle), deeply pitted with lioles, which lay in contact with the upper 

 eyelid. And, a fact not before observed, on clipping away the fore- 

 head-feathers, this black fleshy mass was found to extend entirely 

 across the forehead, like the upj^er part of a black-silk domino, the lit- 

 tle feathers which hide it during life passing through the holes with 

 which it was everywhere pitted (Fig. 3). The legs were stout, pale 

 flesh-colored, and scaly, with large, pavement-like knobs, but not 

 what ornitliologists call " scutellated," excepting over the upper sur- 

 faces of the toes. There were four toes, the first or hinder one being 

 of good size for a hind-toe, and elevated above the rest, arising a lit- 

 tle to the inner side of the leg. The claws were large, blunt, and 

 black, and on the wrist-joint of eacli wing was a small black knob, 

 like a spur (flesh-colored in females and young birds), which was 

 afterward found to be supported by a distinct bony process, or exos- 

 tosis, from the bone of the wing. The tail was very slightly rounded, 

 and composed of twelve feathers the wing-primaries were ten, and 

 the first three of equal length. 



It may be as well to mention here that this species was erected 

 by Dr. Hartlaub in 1841, when he wrote to the Hevue Zoologiqiie^ 



' Revue Zoblogique, 1841, p. 5. 



