160 SOMATERIA SPECTABILIS. 



The plumage is rather short and dense. The feathers on 

 the head very small and blended, on its upper part very nar- 

 row and soft, on the cheeks very stiff, hair-like, and glossy ; 

 on the neck and breast softish, rounded, and blended ; on the 

 upper and lower parts oblong and blended. The wings are 

 rather short, very concave, narrow, and pointed ; the primary 

 quills narrow and pointed, the first two-twelfths of an inch 

 shorter than the second, the rest quickly decurving ; the outer 

 secondaries broad and rounded, the inner eight elongated, 

 tapering, and curved outwards. The tips of the wings do not 

 extend beyond the base of the tail, which is very small, 

 rounded, of fourteen stiff, narrow, pointed feathers. 



The bill is flesh-coloured ; the sides of the vipper mandible 

 and the basal lobes orange. The iris yellow. The feet dull 

 orange, Avith the webs dusky, and the claws dark-brown, 

 blackish toward the end. The base of the upper mandible is 

 margined by a narrow black back, running between the lobes, 

 and sending off posteriorly a line passing in the loral space, 

 and beneath the eye ; on the throat are two black bands 

 meeting anteriorly at a very acute angle. The upper part of 

 the head is light greyish-blue, that colour passing continu- 

 ously along the nape, and then expanding laterally ; the 

 cheeks pale green, that colour separated from the blue of the 

 nape by an oblique white line ; the throat white ; the lower 

 fore part of the neck rich cream-colour ; its hind part, a por- 

 tion of the back, a patch on the wing-coverts, and a round- 

 ish spot on each side of the rump, white. The rest of the 

 back, the scapulars, and the secondary wing-coverts, black ; 

 the smaller wing-coverts, alula, and primary quills and coverts, 

 brownish-black externally, greyish-brown on the inner webs ; 

 the secondary quills darker. The lower parts of the body 

 brownish-black ; the lower wing-coverts grey, but some of 

 them, as well as the axillary feathers, white. 



Length to end of tail 23 inches ; Aving from flexure 10| ; 

 tail S^ ; bill along the ridge 1 j\ ; along the edge of lower 

 mandible 2-^ ; its height at the base before the prominence 

 y^2- ; its height behind the unguis -^ ; tarsus 1-^ ; first toe 

 -j%, its claw ^ ; second toe lj\, its claw -f^ ; third toe 2-^, 

 its claw fj ; fourth toe 2^, its claw -j^. 



