NATATORES. 371 



the European continent. Misfortune, I regret to say, attended 

 Mr. Coxen's specimen ; for a day or two afterwards a rat or 

 some other kind of vermin entered the room in which it was 

 kept, ate off its bill and legs, and so otherwise mutilated the 

 skin as to render it useless. The debris would still have been 

 saved had I not hoped and felt assured of obtaining other 

 examples with my gun ; this hope, however, was never 

 realized. 



To this subject, therefore, I recommend the attention of 

 those in Australia, who will doubtless meet with the bird 

 some day when the country is subject to a partial inundation. 

 That this species should extend its wanderings to Australia 

 is not a matter of surprise, when we know that it has been 

 found within the tropics, both in the Old and New Worlds. 



To enable my Australian readers to recognize the bird, I 

 append a careful description of the two sexes, and of the male 

 after the termination of the breeding-season. 



The male has the head and upper part of the neck deep 

 glossy green ; lower part of the neck, breast, scapularies, and 

 sides of the rump white ; back blackish brown, each feather 

 margined with grey and tinged with green ; lesser wing- 

 coverts and some of the scapularies greyish blue ; tips of the 

 larger coverts white, forming a bar across the wing ; speculum 

 rich green ; tertials rich purplish black, with a streak of white 

 down the centre; middle tail-feathers brown, edged with 

 white, outer ones entirely white ; upper and under tail-coverts 

 black, tinged with green ; under surface reddish brown ; 

 flanks and vent pale brown, crossed with numerous irregular 

 lines of black ; bill blackish brown ; legs orange-red. 



The female has the whole of the upper surface deep brown, 

 each feather barred and margined with white. 



After the breeding-season is over, the male has the cheeks, 

 sides of the neck, and throat reddish white, speckled with 

 brown; crown of the head and nape of the neck black, 

 glossed with green, and each feather with a paler margin; 



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