220 PERDIX CINEREA. 



diminishing to three twelfths, as far as the coeca, the rectum a 

 little enlarged. The coeca, which are seven inches long, Avith 

 a diameter at first of three, and afterwards of four and a half 

 twelfths, and marked internally with about seven longitudinal 

 villous ridges, come off at the distance of three and a half inches 

 from the anus. 



The eyes are of moderate size ; the eyelids feathered, but the 

 lower having at its base a curved bare space. The nostrils are 

 roundish with an anterior narrow slit, and covered by an ob- 

 long operculum, which together with a small portion of the 

 cere, is bare. The external aperture of the ear is circular and 

 small, measuring only one eighth of an inch across. 



The tarsus, which is short, has anteriorly twelve transverse 

 scutella in each, of the two series, and about ten smaller in each 

 of the posterior series, the sides scaly. On the hind toe, which 

 is very small, are five, on the second fifteen, on the third 

 twenty, and on the fourth fifteen scutella. The claws are rather 

 short, stout, and blunt. In young birds however they are 

 longer and more pointed. 



The plumage is rather blended, soft, and full, the feathers 

 ovate or oblong, and rounded ; those of the rump and sides 

 proportionally much longer. There is a bare space of a bright 

 red colour behind the eye. The wings are very short, concave, 

 and much rounded ; the primary quills strong, narrowed, and 

 obtuse, the fourth longest, the third scarcely shorter, the fifth 

 about the same length, the first and seventh nearly equal ; the 

 secondary quills fifteen, the first very short, all rounded and 

 decurved. The tail is very short, straight, rounded, of sixteen 

 broadly rounded feathers. 



The bill and opercula of the nostrils are light greyish-blue ; 

 the irides hazel ; the feet pale greyish-blue tinged with yellow ; 

 the claws dusky. The forehead, a broad band over the eye, 

 the cheeks, and the throat, are light yellowish-red, that colour 

 being narrowly edged behind w4th ash-grey. Between the 

 nostrils is a scarcely observable bandlet of minute black feathers. 

 The upper part of the head is greyish-brown, with slender yel- 

 lowish shaft-lines. The upper parts are minutely banded with 

 dots of brownish-blacky lines of brownish-yellow and grey, with 



