172 BIEDS OF NOEFOLK. 



smaller tlian tlie males ; and with regard to tlieir 

 plumage both very light and very dark varieties are 

 observable amongst them, the former having the double 

 line of markings down the front of the throat and 

 neck, of a light reddish tint, the latter of a uniform 

 dark brown, but the remainder of the plumage does not 

 necessarily partake of the same hue. When freshly 

 killed I have noticed a beautiful purplish bloom, as in 

 old herons, on the feathers of the head and back, and 

 the colour of the cere is then extremely vivid. I never 

 remember to have observed the double iris in this 

 species, described by Pennant, but Messrs. Sheppard 

 and Whitear remark, " in one which we examined that 

 [iris] near the pupil was reddish-yellow, the outer one 

 hazel." 



On the 7th of March, 1862, I examined two fine 

 birds, which had been killed at a right-and-left shot, 

 at Hickling, as they rose from the same tussocky mound, 

 and from their thus lying together I expected to find 

 them male and female. On dissection, however, they 

 proved to be both males. These were in fall adult 

 plumage with a rich bloom on the feathers, and the 

 markings of the throat in each of them was of a hght 

 reddish tint, with the upper portions of the plumage 

 somewhat darker. They were about the same size, 

 but one had the cere of a beautiful pink, whilst in 

 the other the same parts were of the ordinary bluish 

 horn colour. In the first the testes were extraordi- 

 narily developed, being an inch and three-quarters in 

 length, and the whole breast and stomach was covered 

 with perfect layers of fat. The other, in equally good 

 condition, had much smaller testes, scarcely two-thirds 

 of the former measurement; and in a third example, 

 killed about the same time, they were scarcely five- 

 eighths of an inch long. In the stomachs of these birds 

 I found the remains of several eels, one nearly perfect. 



