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short, inner shortest. Toes stout, the claws being very stout

and sickle-shaped. Tail unusually boat-shaped, but nearly

square at the end ; before the moult it was quite square. Before

the moult, also, the head was very little spotted, the chin and

throat hai'dly at all. Total length about ioj inches, of which

perhaps the tail was barely 4. The foregoing particulars are the

result of three examinations made before the moult, and are

as correct as I could obtain them ; but to examine a living and

valued bird is a very different matter from examining an

inanimate skin.


On May 3 ,1 transferred Bob from the house to the garden,

and made a fourth examination, this time when the moult was

nearly but not quite over, and the plumage a little deceptive.

On that day, the feathers from the centre of the crown, running

down the back of the neck and spreading out over the mantle,

were deep black like the lores ; and there was a little black on

the chin and on the base of the forehead. Since, however, the

black feathers from the crown to the mantle seem more or less to

have developed the blue ends and glistening tips. The head and

throat are now profusely tipped, as are practically the entire fore

parts of the body, above and below, lores excepted, the external

aspect of most of the bird being purplish blue, with the head

neck back and breast smeared over with these shining tips,

slanting from the bill tailwards. In some lights the appearance

is as if the head, neck, mantle, and breast had been well rubbed

down with grease. The frequent apparent changes are very

aggravating, for to-day (June 28) the bird’s breast looks as if it

were black mottled with bright light-blue.


On the last examination, the feathers across the breast

with concealed white centres were not, I think, so concentrated,

but seemed more scattered, appearing on the lower breast; and the

tail feathers above were more blue, having only a little edging of

black along the inner webs. The under tail-coverts were bright

purplish blue, and the under wing-coverts seemed to be mostly

blue; but a few were white or tipped with white, forming a

crescent. A line of lighter and brighter blue runs across the

forehead, and the same along each side of the crown ; and since

the beginning of June a distinct patch of the same light blue has

been visible on the lesser coverts. All the flights seemed to be

dusky black, with the exposed parts of the outer webs purplish

blue,—but perhaps not extending to the points of the wing,

which look black. First primary 2^ inches long, 4-6 longest

but I am not sure that all the flights were fully grown on May 3.



