172 LAGOPLS SCOTICUS. 



The plumage is full, compact, soft, with common lustre ; the 

 feathers all rounded, with a long downy plumule. Feathers of 

 the nasal membrane short, stiffish ; those of the head short ; 

 of the neck, back, and breast ovate and of ordinary length ; 

 the ventral loose and soft ; the tarsal and digital downy, ter- 

 minated by a bristly point ; the middle tail-coverts as long 

 as the tail-feathers. The wings are short, broad, rounded ; 

 the primary quills ten, narrow, tapering to a rounded point ; 

 the third and fourth longest, the fifth longer than the se- 

 cond, the first about the length of the seventh ; secondary 

 quills fifteen, broad, rounded with a slight acumen. Tail 

 short, straight, slightly rounded, of sixteen broad, rounded 

 feathers. 



The bill is brownish-black ; the iris hazel ; the superciliary 

 papillar membrane vermilion ; the claws blackish-brown at 

 the base, greyish-yellow at the end. 



The general colour of the plumage is reddish-brown, ap- 

 proaching to chestnut, minutely barred with brownish-black. 

 The head, breast, and sides are deep chestnut brown, the top of 

 the head and the hind-neck irregularly transversely barred with 

 brownish black, as are the breast and sides. The palpebral 

 feathers, and a few on each side at the base of the lower man- 

 dible, are white. The middle of the breast is blackish-brown, 

 the transverse bars of chestnut being much narrower than the 

 black ones ; some of the feathers are white at the end. The 

 lower tail-coverts are chestnut, tipped with a bar of black and a 

 terminal one of white. The lower surface of the wing is pure 

 white. The upper parts are transversely and minutely barred 

 with brownish-black, on a reddish-brown ground, most of the 

 feathers also having a patch of black. The primary quills, the 

 alula, and most of the secondaries, are chocolate brown, t]^e 

 outer margins of the latter minutely mottled with reddish- 

 brown, and the inner five like the feathers of the back. The 

 two middle tail-feathers are like their coverts, the next two 

 slightly barred, the rest greyish-brown, darker towards the end, 

 the tips freckled. The tibial feathers are greyish-brown, those 

 of the tarsi light grey mottled with brown, of the toes pale 

 grey. 



