IN JERDON OR STRAY FEATHERS. 449 



pure pale plumbeous. In the young birds, with the front and 

 interior surface of tarsi, and tibia? somewhat mottled with 

 creamy, perhaps in the very young bird mostly of this color ; 

 the bill is in the adult dusky plumbeous ; edges of upper and 

 lower mandibles for the terminal two-thirds yellowish, aud in 

 the young a horny whity brown or yellowish grey or yellow- 

 ish horny ; the nail orange, or pale orange yellow ; in the 

 spring or breeding plumage the pouch is a deep orange red, with 

 a black patch on either side just at the base of the lower 

 mandible ; in the non-breeding plumage the pouch is a light 

 dirty primrose, or in some pale fleshy, tinged with lemon ; in 

 the young bird both the lower mandible and the pouch are a 

 uniform creamy white ; the cheeks and orbits in the adults 

 in spring plumage a bright pale yellow ; in the winter yellowish 

 white ; in the young bird a sort of livid creamy white. 



In the adult in spring plumage, excepting the quills, primary 

 coverts and winglet, the whole plumage is white, with more or 

 less of a pearly grey tinge on both the upper and under surfaces, 

 according to the light in which it is looked at; there is a broad 

 band at the base of the neck in front, and at the sides, faintly 

 tinged with very pale straw color ; there is not the faintest tinge 

 of rosy anywhere. 



The whole of the feathers of the head and neck are very 

 narrow, long, soft and silky, much curled and twisted on the 

 head, especially behind and just above the eye ; and the 

 feathers of the back of the head are much elongated, so as to form 

 a dense full crest some 4'25 inches long. A line of feathers 

 about 1*5 inches wide down the whole back of the neck is of 

 a more snowy, and less pearly white than the rest of the neck ; 

 the scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts and median and great- 

 er wing-coverts are conspicuously black shafted ; and all these, 

 except the longest of the scapulars, are very long and lanceo- 

 late. A few of the longest scapulars are broad and round, 

 or mucronate at the end ; (and two or three of these have in 

 some specimens a good deal of greyish brown about them, 

 probably the remains of immature or non-breeding plumage) ; 

 there is a beautiful satiny gloss over the whole back, scapulars, 

 and tail ; the two exterior tail-feathers with nearly the whole 

 shafts black, and generally with a decided grey tinge on the 

 outer webs to near the tip ; the rest of the tail feathers with 

 only the terminal third of the shafts, black; the primaries 

 (all of which are white at the base) and their coverts, and 

 winglet very dark brown, almost black ; the second to the 

 fifth primary emarginate on the outer web, and silvered with 

 grey on the last above the emargiuatiou, which in the second 

 is hidden by the coverts. There is more or less silvering of 



