CHAR ABRIDGE. 339 



tials green, glossed with purple and bronze reflections 

 (in some specimens these feathers are slightly mar- 

 gined with dullish white probably these are young 

 birds of the year) ; the rump darkish green, glossed 

 with blue ; the tail-coverts chestnut ; wing-coverts 

 dark glossy green; the primary quills are black, 

 with a longish dull white spot near the tips of the 

 first four; the tail-feathers are white at the base, 

 black towards the tips (between the black and the 

 white, in some specimens, is an irregular chestnut 

 marking) ; the outside feather on each side is nearly 

 all white ; the chin and throat are white in winter 

 and black in summer ; the breast is black ; the belly 

 and flanks white ; under tail-coverts chestnut, but 

 paler than the upper ; legs and toes brownish orange ; 

 claws black. This bird has a rudimentary back 

 claw. The young birds of the year do not vary much, 

 except that the feathers are margined with dull white 

 or buff. Varieties occasionally occur : Yarrell men- 

 tions white, cream-coloured and mouse-coloured : a 

 very curious variety is mentioned in the * Zoologist' 

 for 1865, at p. 9497, in which the head and neck 

 were of the usual colour, some of the primaries 

 white and others mottled ; the tail the usual colour, 

 excepting one feather, which was white ; nearly all 

 the rest of the plumage was white. 



The egg is pear-shaped; of a pale olive^brown 

 ground, much spotted with dark brown. 



2 G 2 



