RALLIDZ. 451 
certainly an ornament to a pond. The beak is 
bright yellow at the tip, the base and a bare patch 
on the forehead bright sealing-wax red; the head, 
neck all round, breast and belly dark lead-grey; the 
back, scapulars, rump, wing-coverts and tertials 
olive-brown; primary quills dark dusky, with a 
narrow white streak on the outer web of the first; 
tail-feathers dark dusky, nearly black; the flanks 
the same as the rest of the under parts, but tinged 
with olive-brown and with a few distinct elongated 
patches of white; under tail-coverts white on the 
sides, black in the middle; the legs and toes greenish 
yellow, becoming almost bright yellow in the spring, 
especially on the fore part,—there is a small red mark 
immediately below the feathers on the thigh; the 
claws greenish horn. The young bird of the year has 
the beak greenish horn; the red patch on the fore- 
head is not so bright, looking rather like a raw place 
than the bright patch on the adult; all the upper 
parts are dull olive-brown ; the chin is dirty white; 
the under parts greyish brown, inclining to white on 
the belly and vent; all the rest the same as the adult; 
legs and toes dark greenish. The young birds in their 
down are the funniest little jet black balls with little 
red sore-looking patches on the forehead. 
The ego is a sort of pale whitish brown ground, 
irregularly speckled all over with reddish brown and 
purplish brown. 
