1818.] GENUS GRACULA. 255 



teen inches and three quarters, breadth seventeen and 

 three quarters. 



Bill from the angle of the mouth an inch and a half 

 long, black, as are the legs, feet and claws; the upper 

 mandible projects over the under; irides pale straw co- 

 lour; tongue cartilaginous and jagged; head and neck, in 

 some specimens, of a lustrous steel-blue and golden- 

 green, in. others of a glossy auricula-purple, mixed with 

 pansy-purple, and tinged with copper colour; interscapular 

 region^ in some, of a golden -green and steel-blue, in 

 others of an auricula-purple and golden- green; rump rich 

 coppery, mixed with auricula-purple; lower parts auri- 

 cula-purple and copper; scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, 

 and coverts of secondaries and tertials of vivid colours, 

 in which the auricula-purple predominates; secondaries 

 and tertials, in some, with purple reflections on their 

 exterior webs, in others glossed with steel-blue; tail com- 

 posed of twelve feathers, their outer webs glossed with 

 steel-blue and auricula- purple, five inches and a half in 

 length, concave when folded, when the bird is on 

 wing greatly boat- shaped. The colours of this species 

 are so various, in different individuals, that no single de- 

 scription can indicate the whole of them. 



Female. Length eleven inches and a quarter; head 

 and neck with reflections of steel-blue and green, but not 

 so vivid as in the male; whole plumage of a bistre-brown, 

 the upper parts with slight reflections of green and auri- 

 cula-purple, the reflections of the wing-coverts more 

 vivid; inner webs of the tail feathers blackish brown; 

 tail, when the bird is flying, but slightly concave; the 

 other parts as in the male. 



