28



Dr. E. Hopkinson,



right down to beak and cere; there is no “bald front.” Back and

rest of the upper surface, including the inner wing-coverts and upper

tail-coverts, a light olive-green. On the primary-coverts is a clearly

outlined patch, an inch or so in diameter, of purplish-mauve. The

border-feathers of the whole upper wing-coverts are blackish-grey,

each feather bordered externally with lemon-yellow, to form a narrow

transverse bar of this colour across the wing. Of the flight-feathers

the primaries are uniformly grey above, the secondaries grey with

narrow lemon-yellow outer edges. The under surface of the whole

wing, including the under wing-coverts and auxiliaries, is a beautiful

grey-blue. The sides of the body and thighs are French grey. The

whole abdomen is bright golden-yellow—the bird’s most conspicuous

feature—fading into pale buff near the vent. The tail-feathers are

above slatey-blue, the terminal half-inch of each paler than the rest,

below black with pale grey ends. The under tail-coverts are red-

brown, more or less mottled or tinged with pale fawn or white, and

consist of elongated pointed feathers. The bill is bluish-grey, the

cere dull purplish ; the legs, which are feathered nearly all the way

down the tarsus, yellow-ochre, exactly the colour of good pie-crust;

the iris magenta with a mauve-blue inner ring.


Length 12J in., i.e. about a third smaller than an English

Wood-Pigeon.


The young differ considerably from the adults. They are

distinctly smaller and entirely lack the yellow breast, this part and

nearly the whole of the plumage being green ; the shoulder patch,

too, is much smaller and a much paler, duller mauve. The legs are

as in the old bird, but the bill is pinkish-grey with a sealing-wax base

and cere. The iris is brown.


In the intermediate or semi-adult plumage to which I have

referred the breast is yellow, but the patch is smaller and much

paler than in the adult, and the rest of the plumage, both green and

mauve, altogether duller. In such birds, too, the bill is pale horn

colour in life, but turns blue-grey after death, and there is no wax-

red base or cere. The iris is entirely magenta without any blue

inner ring.


One also sometimes sees an earlier intermediate stage. The

following is a description from my note-book of two such birds which



