Letters, Announcements, ^c. 237 



nail wax-yellow. Lower mandible and pouch uniform creauiy- 

 white. 



In the female, excepting the quills, primary coverts, and 

 winglet, the whole plumage was white, with more or less of a 

 pearly grey tinge on both the upper and under surfaces, ac- 

 cording to the light in which it was looked at. There was a 

 broad band at the base of the neck in front and at the sides, faintly 

 tinged with a very pale straw-colour : there was not the faintest 

 tinge of rosy anywhere. 



The wtiole of the feathers of the head and neck were very 

 narrow, long, soft and silky, much curled and twisted on the 

 head, especially behind and just above the eye; and the feathers 

 of the sinciput were much elongated, so as to form a dense full 

 crest some 4*25 inches long. A line of feathers about 1*5 in. 

 wide down the whole back of the neck was of a more snowy and 

 less silky white than the rest of the neck. The scapulars, rump 

 and upper tail-coverts, and median and greater wing-coverts 

 were conspicuously black-shafted; and all these, except the 

 longest of the scapulars, were very long and lanceolate. A few 

 of the lonG;est scapulars were broad and round, or mucronate 

 at the end ; and two or three of these had a good deal of gi-eyish- 

 brown about them, probably the remains of immature or non- 

 breeding plumage. There was a beautiful satiny gloss over the 

 whole back, scapulars, and tail ; the two exterior tail-feathers 

 with nearly the whole shafts black, and with a decided grey tinge 

 on the outer webs to near the tip ; the rest of the tail-feathers 

 with only the terminal third of the shafts black. The primaries 

 (all of which were white at the base) and their coverts and the 

 winglet were dark brown. The second to the fifth primary 

 emarginate on the outer web, and silvered with grey on the last 

 above the emargination, which in the second was hidden by the 

 coverts. There was more or less silvering of grey on the outer 

 webs of all the other primaries, their coverts and winglets. The 

 first five priniaries were faintly notched on the inner web, and 

 were pale or greyish-white on the latter above the notches, while 

 the rest of the primaries had the inner portions of the inner 

 webs white. This was still more conspicuous in the secondaries, 

 which were of a much lighter brown, many of them having their 



