196 ANATHLE. 



the head, neck, and the whole of the plumage of the body 

 and wings in adult birds, pure white ; some specimens, 

 occasionally only, exhibiting a rufous or ochreous tint at 

 the tips of the feathers on the head ; the legs, toes, and 

 their membranes black. 



The whole length from the point of the beak to the end 

 of the tail is five feet. From the carpal joint of the wing 

 to the end of the longest primary quill-feather, twenty-five 

 inches and a half; weight twenty -four pounds. 



Of those produced at the Gardens of the Zoological So- 

 ciety, the young birds in the middle of August, when 

 about ten weeks old, the beak was of a dull flesh colour, 

 the tip and lateral margins black ; the head, neck, and all 

 the upper surface of the body pale ash-brown ; the under 

 surface before the legs of a paler brown ; the portion be- 

 hind the legs dull white ; the legs, like the beak, of a dingy 

 flesh colour. 



The same young birds, in the middle of October, have 

 the beak black at the end ; a reddish orange band across 

 the nostrils, the base and lore pale greenish white ; the 

 general colour pale greyish brown ; a few of the smaller 

 wing-coverts white, mixed with others of a pale buffy 

 brown ; the legs black. 



These young Hoopers, bred in 1839, had lost almost all 

 their brown feathers at the autumn moult of 1840, and 

 before their second winter was over they were entirely 

 white ; the base of the beak lemon yellow. 



The internal distinctions of the Hooper are more con- 

 spicuous than those which have been referred to as exter- 

 nal, and of the former, the organ of voice furnishes the 

 most valuable and decisive characters. This peculiarity 

 was known to Willughby, but it was previously noticed 

 by Sir Thomas Browne, who mentions " that strange re- 

 curvation of the windpipe through the sternum." 



