08 NEW HOLLAND CEREOPSIS. 



" SIZE of a small Goose : length thirty-nine Inches : 

 neck long : bare part of the thigh an inch and three 

 quarters; leg seven inches and a half; middle toe 

 three inches and three quarters : the beak is black, 

 three quarters of an inch in length , but from the tip 

 to the gape an inch and a quarter ; the under man- 

 dible shutting close under the upper : from the base 

 of the beak begins a bare, rough skin of a yellow co- 

 Io2ir, covering the whole of the head beyond the cars: 

 the plumage is pale ash-grey, but the neck and under 

 parts are paler, the upper inclining to brown ; some 

 of the wing-coverts and axillaries have a dusky blackish 

 spot near the ends, and the quills are dusky towards 

 the tips : tail the same, consisting of sixteen feathers, 

 and rounded in shape : at the bend of the wing a 

 blunt knob : the second quills nearly as long as the 

 prime ones : the legs are orange colour, but the fore 

 part above the head, the toes and claws, are black : 

 toes four in number, the three forward ones very 

 stout and cloven, but the exterior is connected to the 

 middle one by a membrane at the base : the sole of 

 the foot is a solid knob on which the foot rests, and 

 above this a 'very small fourth toe, which scarcely 

 reaches the ground." 



The above is Latham's description of this very 

 singular and inelegant bird : there is a bad specimen 

 at present in the British Museum, which answers to 

 the above, except in those parts which are printed in 

 Italics : the bird in question has the head clothed 

 with ashy-grey feathers, and the basal half of the 

 beak alone covered with a rugose or papillated cere : 

 the legs are shorter than above stated, the tarsi scarcely 



