Appendix 203 



between the poll and the flesh on the right and left is white 

 and unfeathered, mixed with light blue. The colour, of the 

 poll and peak of the head is exactly the same as that of the 

 toes. The legs are black, marked in front with a double scaly 

 fissure, on the back with none, but smooth, and sprinkled 

 as it were with some spots, of a peculiar colour. The colour 

 below the jaws is exquisite purple ; on the neck dark purple ; 

 on the rest of the body, if you look from above, it stands out 

 as if you sprinkled black and white flour, ground very fine with 

 dusky colour at intervals, and yet did not mix them up. On 

 such a ground oval or round white spots seem to be imposed 

 throughout the whole body, smaller above and larger below, 

 arranged in lines at intervals (as appears in the natural 

 structure of feathers) which cut one another here and there in 

 reciprocal oblique arrangement, only on the top of the body, 

 however, and not below. This you will observe not only 

 from the body as a whole, but from individual feathers if 

 plucked out. For the upper feathers, with their oblique lines 

 cutting one another reciprocally, or, if you will it, with certain 

 rounds composed of black and white flour (as I have said), 

 and meeting towards the tips, as in honey-combs or nets, 

 enclose oval or round white spots within dusky spaces : but 

 the lower do not. Both, however, are arranged by a similar 

 law, for on some feathers they are so joined in rows as to 

 almost make acute triangles ; in others so as to present an 

 oval form. Of this kind there are three or four rows on each 

 feather, so that the smaller are contained in the compass of 

 the larger. At the tips of the wings and on the tail, spots 

 lie along the length in equidistant straight lines. You can 

 hardly distinguish between the cock and the hen, so great 

 is the likeness, save that the head of the hen is wholly black. 

 The voice is a shrill double cry, not more sonorous or louder 

 than that of the Quail, but like that of the Partridge, except that 

 the latter is lower, and not so clear. In running it is swift. 



OF THE MORINELLUS. 



The Morinellus, a bird common to us and the Morini 1 , 

 is very foolish, but delicate to eat, and on that account is a 



1 The people of a district in Northern France. 



