BRITISH BIRDS. 



135 



spotted with white; lesser coverts a mixture of 

 dusky, cinereous, and white, dashed with ferru- 

 ginous, with a few feathers near the quills spotted 

 ferruginous like the back: under wing coverts 

 white, elegantly barred and spotted with white; 

 tail nearly even at the end, the two middle feathers 

 rather the longest, the whole marked with eight or 

 nine alternate bars of black and white quite to the 

 base, forming, when the tail is spread, so many 

 concentric semi-circular bands; legs dusky black, 

 two and a half inches long from the knee to the 

 heel; bare space above the knee, scarcely three 

 quarters of an inch; toes marginated, outer one 

 connected as far as the first joint to the middle one. 

 This bird was shot at Knightsbridge, 1803, and 

 proved to be a female." There is scarcely any 

 difference between the male and the female. 



