192 ANATID^E. 



quadrangular and yellow : this latter colour extending con- 

 siderably forward along each lateral margin of the upper 

 mandible, beyond the openings of the nostrils, which are 

 black; the lore, or bare space between the base of the 

 upper mandible and the eye, is also yellow; the irides 

 dark ; 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 ochre- 

 ous 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 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 last 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 

 behind 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. 



The 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- 



