BOHEMIAN WAXiVINfi. 361 



with pure white on the outer web ; four of the secondary 

 quill-feathers, and from one to four of the tertials, depend- 

 ing on the sex and age of the bird, terminate in a small, 

 flat, oblong appendage, resembling in colour and substance 

 red sealing wax ; these appendages are merely expanded and 

 coloured horny prolongations of the shafts of the feathers 

 beyond their webs ; upper tail-coverts smoke-grey ; tail- 

 feathers smoke-grey at the base, black towards the end, and 

 tipped with king"'s-ycllow, the shafts of the feathers being 

 slightly tinged with red where the webs are yellow. Under 

 the chin is a patch of velvet black ; at the angle of the mouth 

 the feathers are chestnut, passing on the cheeks, neck, 

 breast, and all the under parts, into pale brocoli-brown, be- 

 coming greyish brown on the flanks and abdomen ; under 

 tail-coverts chestnut brown ; axillary plume, and under sur- 

 face of the wings, ash-grey ; all the plumage silky and soft 

 to the touch ; the legs, toes, and claws, black. 



The whole length of the bird rather more than eight 

 inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing four 

 inches and a half : the first and second feathers very nearly 

 equal in length, and the longest in the wing, indicating con- 

 siderable powers of flight. 



A female described by Dr. Richardson had the marks on 

 the tips of the primaries untinged with yellow ; a narrower 

 yellow tip to the tail, and a smaller and less intensely black 

 mark on the chin. Very old males have sometimes as many 

 as eight red appendages to the wing-feathers ; the females 

 never more than five. 



Young birds have no waxlike appendages during their 

 first year ; and the same may be said of the young of the 

 American species. Neither sex of the new species from 

 Japan, described by M. Temminck, exhibit waxlike ap- 

 pendages at any age ; T have not, therefore, included this 

 peculiarity in the generic characters here given. 



