112 GREAT CRESTED GRERE. 
above, orange buff of a paler or richer tint, which fades after 
death; below, silvery white, the sides dashed with brown and 
chesnut. Back, dusky grey, with here and there green and 
purple reflections. 
The wings expand to the width of two feet six inches; 
lesser wing coverts, dusky brown; primaries, dull black; 
secondaries, white, forming an oblique bar across the wing 
when closed, but most visible when the wings are extended; 
tertiaries,) buff orange, of a paler or deeper hue: they have 
on their outer webs a narrow blaek edge. ‘Tail, short, and 
dusky greyish brown. The legs are deep greyish green on 
the front, and behind pale yellowish green, the scales forming 
a double ridge. The full plumage and crest are not acquired 
until the end of the third year. 
In the female, which is not so large as the male, the 
bill is duil vermilion at the base; the crest is a little smaller. 
Head on the back, the feathers being long, loose, and some- 
what hackled, crown, and neck, reddish brown; chin and 
throat, white; breast, yellowish white above, grey on the 
sides, below yellowish white, but sometimes tending to 
orange buff. The greater wing coverts are broadly tipped 
with white; primaries, greyish black; secondaries, partly 
white, exhibiting a speculum of that colour; tertiaries, deep 
greyish black; the shafts black. Legs and toes, dull reddish 
orange. 
The young are at first clothed in reddish brown and 
greyish white down. Mr. Yarrell says ‘For some time after 
they are hatched, the young chicks have their bills mottled 
black and white; the head and neck ornamented with long 
dark stripes on a ground colour of dull greyish white; the 
upper surface of the body dark brown, with longitudinal 
stripes of light brown; the whole under surface white.’ 
In the immature plumage, the eye is yellow; there is but 
little crest under two years; the forehead is white, and on 
the front of the head and the neck are numerous dusky 
zigzag lines; the red about the head is wanting, and there 
is a dusky streak in front of and under the eye; the sides 
are dashed with yellowish brown. 
