CAPE TURTLE. 191 



grey. Tail? with the two centre feathers grayish- 

 brown from the base half-way up, and then passing 

 into black, those on each side rapidly graduated, 

 bluish-gray at the base, with a broad black fascia 

 near their tips, which are gray. Bill and feet yellow. 

 Extreme length from the tip of the bill to the end of 

 the tail nearly ten inches. 



The colours of the female are more sordid, and 

 the forehead and chin, instead of being black, are 

 nearly white ; the metallic spots upon the wings are 

 also less, and her tail shorter. 



The young, instead of the black throat and breast, 

 have these parts brown, barred with white. The 

 feathers of the back and wing-coverts are also barred 

 with black, and terminated with white and reddish- 

 white, and the crown of the head is hair-brown, the 

 feathers margined with reddish -brown. The fore- 

 head and chin are white. 



The next division, to which we direct the atten- 

 tion of our readers, is that of the Ground Doves, or 

 PeristerincB, distinguished from the preceding groups 

 by their terrene habits, and their evident approach, 

 in many points, to the more typical Rasores or Gal- 

 linaceous Birds. In these the bill is rather slender, 

 frequently subemarginate, and the tip of the upper 

 mandible but gently deflected ; the wings are gene- 

 rally short and rounded, and in many instances con- 

 cave, as we see them in the partridge, grous, &c. 

 The legs are considerably longer than in the typical 



