12 GREAT SXIPE. 



the evening, or by the light of the 'Vaga Luna,' and bore 

 with their bills in suitable places in search thereof. 



The note is a monosyllabic 'bad, bad,' uttered, it is said, 

 when one of these birds happens to meet another, and also, 

 Mr. Selby says, on being disturbed. 



The nest is placed on a tust of grass or hillock in a marsh 

 near to some standing water, and is lined with a little dry 

 grass and fragments of other herbage. 



The eggs are four in number, of a yellowish olive brown 

 colour, spotted with two shades of reddish brown. They require 

 seventeen days incubation, and then the young are tended for 

 about a month by their parents. 



Male; weight, from seven to nine ounces; length, about one 

 foot, to one foot and half an inch; bill, dusky at the tip, 

 darker brown towards the middle, pale yellowish brown at 

 the base; from it a cream yellow streak spotted with brown 

 proceeds over the eye; between the bill and the eye is a narrow 

 streak of rich chesnut brown. Forehead and crown, rich dark 

 brown, with a few specks of reddish brown, along it a narrow 

 pale brown or cream-coloured stripe; head on the sides, dull 

 cream white, speckled with dusky; neck, pale brown, the centre 

 of each feather darker brown; on the back and the nape, pale 

 yellowish rufous, spotted with black; in front the neck is 

 yellowish white, with large angular brown spots. Chin and 

 throat, dull cream-coloured white, speckled with dusky; breast 

 above, pale brown, with semicircular bands of brownish tlack; 

 on its lower part, pale brownish white, with the same dark 

 brown cross markings as above. Back above, rich brownish 

 black, the feathers margined and streaked along their centres 

 with fine buff' or straw-colour; on the lower part, dark brown 

 ed^ed with paler brown. 



The wings have the first quill feather the longest; they 

 measure in expanse one foot and a half; greater wing coverts, 

 black, tipped with white; lesser wing coverts, nearly black, 

 the upper ones tipped with pale yellowish brown, the lower 

 with white; primaries, dusky or dull greyish black, the shafts 

 white; secondaries, dull black, tipped with white; tertiaries, 

 black, barred with pale brown, and margined with a double 

 line of black and yellowish white. The tail is of sixteen 

 feathers, the two centre ones black for two thirds of their 

 length, the two next, that is, one on each side, nearly all 

 white, the others rich brownish black from the base for three 

 fourths of their length, followed by a patch of chesnut 



