12 BRITISH BIRDS. 



brownish black, with a stripe of that colour falling 

 down from the cheeks and corners of the mouth, 

 before the auriculars, on each side of the throat. 

 The upper plumage is dingy bluish ash, more or 

 less clouded and barred with dark brown, and the 

 shaft of each feather black. The bastard wing, 

 and the primary and secondary quills appear at a 

 first glance to be of an uniform plain dark ash 

 coloured brown, but on a nearer inspection the 

 whole are seen to be barred with darker spots, and 

 tipped with dull white. The rump and tail coverts 

 are more distinctly barred, and of a lighter colour 

 than the other upper parts. The tail, which con- 

 sists of twelve feathers, is a dark dingy ash, barred 

 or spotted with brownish black, and tipped with 

 pale brown or dirty white. The under parts of the 

 plumage are pale clay colour, plain on the auri- 

 culars, chin, and fore part of the neck ; but towards 

 the breast, the feathers are slightly marked with 

 very small scratches of black, and the breast with 

 roundish black spots. The sides, belly, and insides 

 of the wings are dull white, beautifully, and dis- 

 tinctly barred with dark brown ; the primary and 

 secondary quills, on the inside, are also barred, in 

 the same way, with ash and dingy freckled white. 

 The thighs are long, and prettily marked with 

 small heart-shaped spots ; legs and toes short, 

 strong, and yellow ; claws black. 



The bird from which this figure and description 

 were taken, was a male, shot by M. Bell, Esq., of 

 Woolsington, in the act of tearing a Partridge, 

 March 21, 1814. Length from bill to tail sixteen 

 inches : breadth thirty-seven inches ; weight twenty- 

 three ounces and a half. 



