522 patagonian expeditions : zoology. 



General description : 



Size. — Adult female, 791 1 P. U. O. C, near Coy Inlet, Patagonia, 14th 

 September, 1896. J. B. Hatcher. 



Total length, about 28.00 inches. 



Wing, ii.o inches. 



Culmen, 2.3 inches. 



Tail, 5.5 inches. 



Tarsus, 2.6 inches. 



Adult birds do not seem to vary in size or plumage, the sexes being 

 identical in appearance. 



Color. — (Adult female cited above). 



General color : Above glossy black, with bottle-green on wings ; a white 

 alar bar and the lower parts pure silky white with a fine sheen. 



Head : Black above, with a pronounced recurved crest, the longest 

 feathers one and three quarters inches, the whole glossed with steel-blue, 

 often shaded with dull purple and steel-green ; the black extends well 

 down on the sides of the face below the eyes and covers the ears ; a slight 

 admixture of hair-like white feathers on the sides of the head about the 

 ears and behind the eye. 



Neck : Black, glossed with steel-blue deep in tone above, and pure white 

 with a silky sheen below; the white extends to the base of the lower 

 mandible and there is a pointed inter-ramal white feathering extending 

 forward almost in line with the commissure of the bill. 



Back: Upper back and interscapular region, dull bottle-green, with a 

 strong gloss, but with no marks or shading on the feathers ; lower back, 

 rump and upper tail-coverts black, with a fine steel-blue sheen and gloss ; 

 there is in none of the specimens examined any trace of a white dorsal 

 patch. 



Tail : Dull brownish black ; the shafts of the rectrices white for a third 

 of their length ; there are twelve rectrices. 



Wings : Dull, glossy bottle-green ; the primaries brownish black ; sec- 

 ondaries and tertials on their exposed surfaces dull, glossy bottle-green ; 

 upper wing-coverts dull bottle-green, interrupted generally by a more or 

 less perfect alar bar of pure white (some apparently adult individuals 

 examined lack this alar bar) ; under wing-coverts and axillaries dull 

 blackish brown, somewhat glossed with green. 



Lower parts : Thighs and under tail-coverts glossy black, with steel- 

 blue shading ; the rest of the underparts pure white, with a silky sheen. 



