The Zoologist— May, 1870. 2127 



future accessory corneous element. The upper mandible is mostly 

 blackish ; the lower dull obscured reddish. The legs and feet appear 

 to have been coloured much like those of the adult. The colours of 

 the plumage are precisely those of the specimen last described ; the 

 patches of down are smoky brown. There is no trace of white about 

 the head. 



Nestling, about 5^ inches long. (Farralone Islands. Mus. Acad. 

 Philad.) All over smoky brown, lighter and more grayish below. 



The horn of this bird, always present in the adult, and always 

 indicated, even in the scarcely feathered young, as we have just seen, 

 varies a great deal in the details of its size and shape. It is usually 

 nearly upright, but frequently projects a little obliquely forward. Its 

 average height is between four and five-tenths of an inch, measuring 

 from the level of the culmen at the anterior edge of the root of the 

 horn. The real roots of the horn begin a little above the nasal aper- 

 ture ; the nostril opening just beneath the lower edge. The horn is 

 thus bifurcated, as it were, at the base, and saddled on the base of the 

 upper mandible. The anterior outline is usually straight, or slightly 

 curved, the apex rounded, and the posterior border irregular in outline. 

 It would be impossible to indicate all the variation in detail ; 

 scarcely two horns are precisely alike. 



The frontal feathers ascend a very little way up the back of the 

 horn in the majority of instances ; sometimes, however, they end 

 abruptly at its base. From their foremost point they sweep down- 

 wards and backwards along the side of the upper mandible with a 

 gentle regular curve, to the rictal angle, leaving the tomial edges of 

 the upper mandible bare. The chin feathers begin at the accessory 

 symphyseal piece, rise quickly on the sides of the under mandible, 

 and reach its tomial edge in advance of the rictal angle. 



The symphyseal piece, which is developed from the skin of the apex 

 of the interramal space, is, when fully formed, as hard as the rest of 

 the bill. Anteriorly it is directly continuous with the mandibular 

 symphysis. On its sides, a groove indicates its line of cohesion with 

 the mandibular rami. The horn, when mature, is perfectly corneous 

 and hard to its extreme base ; there being no soft skin even about the 

 nostrils. Its main shaft is hollow ; a tube is disclosed when the top 

 is worn off or broken off. 



The white feathers on the side of the head differ from those of other 

 Phaleridines (except S. Suckleyi) in not being very slender, filamentous 

 and wavy. They are straight, short, acutely pointed, stiffisb. 



