REFULGENT LANCECBEST. 171 



best endeavours to accomplish so desirable an object ; 

 and that, ere long, we may be in possession of living 

 specimens of the superb creature we shall now describe. 



The size of the male is rather larger than the common 

 domestic cock. On the head is a lance-shaped crest of 

 seventeen or eighteen feathers of different lengths ; but 

 the longest does not exceed three inches and a half. 

 The feathers of the head, neck and throat, are lan- 

 ceolate and pointed ; and are of the richest green bronze, 

 changing to deep purple towards the middle of the 

 neck : this colour again blends into a golden copper 

 hue ; but these colours are so exceedingly brilliant, and 

 so changed by every different reflection of light, that it 

 is almost impossible to give an exact description of 

 them. The back and wing covers are rich purple, 

 edged with a brilliant greenish bronze colour ; but the 

 quills are entirely black : the under plumage, from 

 the chin downwards as far as the vent, is of a dull 

 black, partially glossed with green : the legs are fea- 

 thered just below the knees, and are of the same colour : 

 the tail is of a beautiful and delicate cinnamon colour, 

 verging towards orange ; it has fourteen feathers, shghtly 

 rounded, and rather darker at their tips. The tarsus has 

 one strong spur. 



The female is somewhat smaller than the male, and 

 does not appear to have the resplendent crest which 

 ornaments that sex ; its colours, likewise, are totally 

 different. The upper plumage is dark brown ; each 

 feather being pale fulvous in the middle, mottled with 

 the general hue of the back, in such a way as not to be 

 greatly different, as Dr. Latham remarks, to those on 

 the back of the great eared owl : beneath the eye is 

 a broad dusky white stripe. The quill feathers are 

 black ; but the lesser are banded also with ferruginous : 

 the tail is brown, and hardly exceeds the wings ; while 

 the legs have only a tubercle in place of the spur seen 

 in the male. 



