WEDGE-TAILED GREEN PIGEON 81 



In a great many males, which appear to be fu'.ly adult birds, the maroon 

 on the back and interscapulars is very slight in extent, and it is always paler 

 there than on the shoulders of the wing. 



Colours of soft parts. " Legs, feet and claws, crimson pink ; bill dull 

 smalt blue ; horny portion pale skim milk blue ; orbital skin smalt blue ; 

 irides with an inner ring of pale bright blue and an outer ring of bufiy pink " 

 (Davison). 



I have known the colours of the feet to vary from coral-red, with only 

 a faint tinge of crimson, to an almost pure deep crimson ; the soles are almost 

 invariably paler and the claws are horny, or horny-brown, in exceptional 

 cases only suffused with pink. The bill has the cere and the terminal portion 

 dull smalt-blue, the central hard portion duller and paler, and, in a few 

 specimens, there is a very faint tinge of green here. The orbital skin is pale 

 lavender or smalt-blue. The irides have two rings, the inner bright pale 

 ultramarine, the outer ranging from a buffy-puik to a very bright crimsoia- 

 pink, the colour being brightest and most intense in old birds. 



Measurements. Total length in life about 13 in. Length of wing from 

 6.8 in. to 7.3 ( = 172.7 to 185.4 mm.) ; tail from 4.5 in. to 5.5 ( = 114.3 mm. to 

 139.7) ; tarsus .65 to .75 ( = 16.5 mm. to 19) ; bill from front the same and 

 from gape .95 in. to 1.05 ( = 24.1 to 26.6 mm.). 



Throughout its range the variations in size seems to be much the same 

 and I cannot find that northern birds are any larger than southern ones. 



Adult fetnale. There is no rufous on the head or maroon on the upper- 

 plumage, and the under tail-coverts are pale ochre with green centres and 

 white shafts. 



Colours of soft parts. The same as in the male, the colour of the iris 

 being, perhaps, not so brilliant as it is in very old males. 



Measurements. There is practically no difference between the male 

 and female, and in the very large series in the British Museum the average 

 wing-measurement of both males and females works out at about 6.95 m. 

 ( = 176.5 mm.). 



Young male. The young male is like the female in general coloration, 

 but still duller and rather darker. The quills are of a very dull tint of 

 brown, and often a rather greenish-brown, whilst all the quUls are very 

 narrowly edged with yellow. 



The maroon on the upper-parts appears at the first autumn-moult as 

 small patches on the wing, but is not acquired to its full extent together with 

 the rufous crown until the subsequent spring-moult. Also, it is not until 

 the first moult, or even after a still later one, that the birds grow to their 

 full size. 



" The base of the bill and orbital skin cobalt blue ; tip of bill pale blue ; 

 irides brownish grey " (Scully). 



In very young birds the bill is almost white, and the orbital skin and cere 

 are pale dull lavender. The irides, composed of one ring only, are a pale, 

 rather watery-looking grey. 



The wing of the young male in the first year averages under rather than 

 over 6 in. ( = 152.4 mm.), and the tail about 4.5 in. ( = 114.3 mm.). 



The two specimens of Sphenocercus cantillans referred to by Mr. P. L. 

 Dodsworth in a recent number of the Avicultural Magazine, and by myself 

 in a subsequent number, are merely cage-birds which have lost their green 

 pigment. When Mr. Dodsworth and I wTote about these birds we, neither 

 of us, had the specimens to examine or a full library to refer to. 



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