484 ARDEID.E. 



T]ie beak is brownish yellow ; the upper mandible dark 

 brown along the upper ridge, and at the point : the lore 

 green ; the irides yellow ; crown of the head brown, tinged 

 with red ; from the forehead, before, over, and behind the 

 eye, a streak of light yellow brown ; occiput and nape 

 brown ; all the back of the neck below the nape bare ; inter- 

 scapulars, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, rich brown, the 

 centre of each feather the darkest and most uniform in colour, 

 the edges freckled with the darker brown on a ground of 

 yellow brown ; all the primaries except the first three and all 

 the secondaries brownish black, tipped with chestnut, which is 

 also freckled with brownish black ; all the shafts black ; ter- 

 tials freckled with dark brown, red broAvn, and buff; upper 

 tail-coverts buff, freckled with two shades of brown ; tail- 

 feathers almost uniform reddish brown ; chin and front of the 

 neck a mixture of white, buff, and dark brown in streaks ; 

 ear-coverts, and a line descending therefrom, yellow brown : 

 between this and the throat in front an elongated descending 

 streak of black ; the loose elongated feathers of the front and 

 sides of the neck down to the breast, are brown along the 

 centre, bounded by a darker line, and with broad edges of 

 pale buff: breast and belly bufF, each feather with an elon- 

 gated brown central patch ; vent and under tail-coverts uni- 

 form buff ; legs and toes greenish brown ; the claws darker ; 

 the middle claw pectinated. 



Whole length about twenty-seven inches. From the 

 carpal joint to the end of the wing eleven inches and a half: 

 the first three quill-feathers nearly equal in length, and the 

 longest in the wing; the first quill-feather differs in form 

 from the second and third, being remarkably pointed at the 

 end, while the second and third are rounded. 



