BLUE- WINGED SHOVEL-BILL. 77 



denticulate. The claAvs are slender, compressed, acuminate, 

 moderately arcuate, that of the middle toe with the inner 

 edge slightly dilated. 



The plumage is soft, dense, elastic, and glossy. The 

 feathers of the head and upper neck blended, of the occiput 

 and nape considerably elongated, of the rest of the neck and 

 lo\yer parts obovate, of the sides elongated, of the back 

 oblong. The inner scapulars elongated and acuminate. 

 Wings of moderate length, moderately concave, rather nar- 

 row, pointed, with twenty-five quills ; the primaries tapering, 

 the first a twelfth of an inch shorter than the second, which 

 is longest, the rest rapidly decreasing ; the outer secondaries 

 incur vate, and obliquely rounded ; the inner elongated and 

 acuminate. The tail is short, much rounded, of fourteen 

 stiffish tapering feathers, of which the lateral are nearly an 

 inch shorter than the medial. 



The bill is entirely black, with a tinge of grey. The iris 

 reddish-orange. The feet also reddish -orange, the claws 

 dusky, with the tip horn-coloured. The head and upper 

 half of the neck are glossy green, changing to purple ; the 

 top of the head, fore part of the cheeks, and throat black, 

 with little green, the rest of the neck, and a small part of the 

 breast white, excepting a longitudinal band of dusky behind, 

 continuous with the greenish-black of the back, of which the 

 anterior feathers are margined with white, and the posterior 

 become gradually darker and more glossed with gi-een, the 

 tail-coverts having a brilliant tint. The outer anterior scapu- 

 lars are white, the inner chiefly black ; the outer posterior 

 have the outer web pale blue, the inner web white ; most of 

 the rest have a white slender median band, and dusky green 

 sides, the innermost black entirely. The small wing-coverts 

 are light blue ; the primary coverts and quills brownish- 

 black, shaded with grey, and having the shafts white ; several 

 of the outer secondaries are largely tipped with white ; the 

 secondaries are greenish-black, but on eight of them the outer 

 web is shining deep green, and the inner tapering feathers 

 have a white streak toward the tip. The tail-feathers are 

 brownish-grey, undulated and margined with Avhite, which 

 increases from the medial to the outer. The breast, sides, 



