BLUE-AVINGED SHOVEL-BILL. 73 



u'liite, greenish-hlack, and pale blue; sijecidmn bright green, 

 margined anteriorly ivith white ; tail short, much rounded, of 

 fourteen pointed feathers. Female ivith the bill dusky above, 

 reddish-brown beneath, the head and upper neck pale reddish, 

 streaked with dusky, the lower neck and breast similar, with 

 dusky spots ; feathers of the upper parts blackish-brown, 

 edged icith reddish-ichite ; smaller icing -coverts faintly tinged 

 zvith light bine ; speculum duller, and of less extent than in 

 the male. 



Male in "Winter. — The peculiar form of the hill, from 

 which this species derives its name, at once distinguishes it 

 from every other British bird. Its body is rather full and 

 somewhat depressed ; the neck of moderate length ; the head 

 oblong, nearly flat above, and much compressed. 



The bill is longer than the head, of much greater height 

 than breadth at the base, gradually depressed, and widened 

 toward the end, its breadth there being doubled ; upper 

 mandible with the basal margins broadly rounded, the dorsal 

 line gently sloping and nearly straight to the unguis, which 

 is small, oblongo-obovato, decurved at the end, the ridge 

 broad and concave at the base, gradually narrowed, the sides 

 at first erect, gradually more declinate toward the end, and 

 convex ; the end semicircular ; the edges marginate, sinuous, 

 with about a hundred and seventy lamellae, of which the 

 outer ends are compressed, tapering, and pointed, and project 

 so as to resemble a comb, until the commencement of the 

 broadest part of the bill, where they are more widely set and 

 short, and from thence to the tip, where, although elongated 

 and acicular, they curve inwards ; the nasal groove ovato- 

 elliptical, rather small, sub-basal, and near the ridge ; the 

 lower mandible slightly re-arcuate, with the intercrural space 

 very long and rather narroAv, the sides of the crura erect at 

 the base, horizontal at the end ; the unguis small, obovate, 

 little convex, the edges inclinate, with about eighty external 

 and two hundred and twenty upper lamellae, the latter 

 acicular. 



The mouth is of moderate width ; the anterior palate 

 broadly concave, with a median prominent ridge, becoming 



