226 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



and scapulars, white, thickly crossed with wav- 

 ing lines of black ; lesser coverts, dusky, pow- 

 dered with veins of whitish ; primaries and ter- 

 tials, brownish black ; secondaries, white, tipped 

 with black, forming the speculum ; rump and 

 tail-coverts, black ; tail, short, rounded, and of a 

 dusky brown; belly, white, crossed near the 

 vent with waving lines of ash; legs and feet, 

 dark slate. Such is the color of the bird in its 

 perfect state. Young birds vary considerably, 

 some having the head black, mixed with gray 

 and purple, others the back dusky, with little or 

 no white, and that irregularly dispersed. The 

 female has the front and sides of the same white ; 

 head and half of the neck, blackish brown; 

 breast, spreading round the back, a dark sooty 

 brown, broadly skirted with whitish ; back, 

 black, thinly sprinkled with grains of white; 

 vent, whitish ; wings, the same as the male. 



" The windpipe of the male of this species is 

 of large diameter : the labyrinth, similar to some 

 others, though not of the largest kind ; it has 

 something of the shape of a single cockle shell ; 

 its open side, or circular rim, covered with a 

 thin, transparent skin. Just before the wind- 

 pipe enters this, it lessens its diameter at least 

 two-thirds, and assumes a nattish form." 



