238 Letters, Announcements, S^c. 



whole outer webs a silver-grey. Probably those which still 

 retained the brown were the remains of the less mature plumage. 

 The tertials were some of them pure white, while some were 

 pearly-grey on the outer webs, and on the inner greyish-brown 

 paling to grey or white towards the margin. The feathers of 

 the base of the neck and breast were very thickly set, very 

 narrow and pointed, the filaments along the margin a good 

 deal separated. 



The male, doubtless a young bird, altogether wanted the 

 linear, lanceolate feathers. It had the whole head, neck, and 

 lower surface of the body, and under surface of the wings (ex- 

 cept the tips of the quills and a row of small coverts near the 

 margin of the wing, which were pale wood-brown), the middle 

 of the back, between the shoulders, the whole middle and lower 

 back, rump, and upper tail-coverts white — slightly shaded with 

 grey about the back of the neck, owing to the dark bases of the 

 feathers showing more or less, but elsewhere very pure. The 

 feathers of the head and neck were far shorter and more fur- 

 like than in the female. There was scarcely any of the twist- 

 ing and curling about the ear-coverts; and the crest was very 

 small in volume and not above 2 inches in length. The whole 

 of the scapulars and shoulder-feathers were broadly tipped with 

 pale brown, which, owing to their overlapping each other, was 

 the chief colour visible ; and though their shafts were dark as 

 in the female, they had not the linear lanceolate character so 

 conspicuous in the latter. The upper tail-coverts were dai'k- 

 shafted, as in the female. The tail-feathers were white at the 

 base on both webs, the greater part of the rest of the inner web 

 white with a little grey towards the tips, and of the outer webs 

 silvery grey ; fully the basal third of the shafts white, the ter- 

 minal two-thirds blackish ; the tertials and their coverts nearly 

 pure white. Only a row or two of the lesser coverts along the 

 edge of the wing pale brown, and the tertials themselves and 

 greater coverts with a tinge of the same hue about the tips. 

 The whole of the lesser and median coverts, from the elbow to 

 the carpal joint, pale brown (some of the feathers greyer and 

 others more buffy) darker-shafted, and faintly tipped with white. 

 Primaries and secondaries with white at their bases on both 



