BRITISH BIRDS. 263 



with the shoulders, scapulars, and sides, are pale 

 brownish yellow, beautifully marked or pencilled 

 with dusky waved lines: the lower part is less 

 distinctly marked, and appears of an ash-grey: the 

 belly white: the wing coverts are white; the 

 greater ones crossed or barred with a black line 

 about half an inch from their tips: the secondary 

 quills are clear reddish chesnut ; those of the 

 primaries which join them, forming the speculum, 

 which in varied lights are either of a resplendent 

 green or purple: the rest of the first quills, the 

 back, and tail, are black: the under coverts of the 

 latter pale chesnut : the legs are long, and, as well 

 as the webs, are of a pale flesh colour: nails black. 

 Latham describes this species as being of the sizq 

 of the common Goose : our specimen is not nearly 

 so large. He also says, " It has on the bend of the 

 wing a blunt spur, half an inch in length." In this 

 he has been misled, for it is only a prolongation of 

 the third bone of the wing, and not a spur. A pair 

 of these birds, male and female, were kept by Sir 

 Charles Loraine, Bart., on a pond at Kirkharle; 

 but a hard frost, in January, 1827, obliged them to 

 quit this abode, probably in search of open water, 

 when the latter bird (by mistake) was shot, and the 

 preserved specimen was obligingly lent by Sir 

 Charles for the use of this work. 



Bit 



