112 Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^c. 



most part, broadly margined with brownish cream-colour, of 

 which colour the tertiaries and greater wing-coverts partake 

 largely. Tail composed of sixteen broad, stiifish feathers, pointed 

 at tip, with thick black stems, the laterals being somewhat in- 

 curved. Length of tail 7^ inches from root to tip of central 

 feathers ; the extreme lateral 2 j inches shorter than the central, 

 the rest graduated, giving a rounded form to the tail when ex- 

 panded. Most of the rectrices are cream-colour ; but some have 

 a strong admixture of brown, showing that the bird is not quite 

 mature. In full plumage, I opine, the whole tail, with the exception 

 of the dark stems, would be cream-colour, as also the entire wing- 

 coverts and tertiaries. Under parts white,washed with fine roseate. 

 The cere, supercilium, and beyond the eye bare; the skin-line 

 rounding towards the angle of the mouth, retiring in a semicircle 

 on the basal side of the lower mandible, advancing again below it, 

 and then retiring and keeping well clear of the throat, which is 

 connected with the gaping crura by a deep loose skin up to their 

 apical junction. The crura terminate in a dertrum opposite to the 

 hooked dertrum that terminates the culmen. The lines of the 

 upper mandible are narrow at starting, then, expanding into a 

 spatula, gradually contract to the tip. This mandible is rounded 

 at its sides for about one-third of its length, and then flattens 

 into a spatula, its greatest breadth being 1^ inch, its least breadth 

 1 in., and the culmen on either side- is distinctly grooved ; nos- 

 trils indistinct, and covered with a membrane. Hind toe lateral ; 

 all the toes connected by a membrane. No pecten on the middle 

 claw. Tibia bare for about 1 inch ; tarse 3^ in. long ; middle toe 

 and claw 5^ in., hind toe and claw 2\ in. The weather being 

 hot at the time, the body became putrid, and was thrown away ; I 

 was therefore, I regret to say, unable to determine the sex of 

 the specimen, or to note any anatomical details. 



I am told that a large number of Gallinaceous birds have been 

 forwarded alive to the Acclimatization Society at Paris from 

 Pekin ; among others, several specimens of Crossoptilon and some 

 beautiful kinds of Pheasants. They went by the " Messageries 

 Impdriales^^; so you will probably have heard of them before this 

 reaches you. I am, &c., 



Robert Swinhoe. 



