546 SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. 
especially of the upper ; iris hazel; feet lead-grey, claws dusky. The 
general colour of the plumage is chocolate-brown, the upper parts 
glossed, with purple and bronze reflections; the fore part of the head 
paler, inclining to grey, each feather with a greyish-white central 
line; the sides of the head and the throat are still lighter, and a small 
portion of the throat is whitish, these parts being streaked with greyish- 
brown and greyish-white; the lower eyelid white. The hind part 
and sides of the neck are marked with elliptical spots of white in regu- 
lar series, there being one on each feather, some of them extending 
forwards to the posterior angle of the eye. Some of the feathers on 
the middle of the breast and the lower wing-coverts are similarly 
marked with lanceolate white spots; the tail is more highly glossed 
and coloured than the rest of the upper parts. 
Length to end of tail 25? inches, to end of wings 25, to end of claws 
32, to carpal joint 132; extent of wings 41; wing from flexure 124; 
tail 54; bill along the ridge 4;%, along the edge of lower mandible 43 ; 
bare part of tibia 24; tarsus 4;%;; hind toe 1,45, its claw 7% ; second toe 
2:45, its claw #4; third toe 33, its claw 49; fourth toe 2,8, its claw 3%. 
The Female is somewhat less, but resembles the male. 
Length to end of tail 25 inches, to end of claws 33}; to end of 
wings 24, to carpal joint 122; extent of wings 42 ; wing from flexure 12 ; 
tail 42; bill along the gape 43. 
The young when fully fledged is of a much lighter tint; the head 
and fore-neck brownish-grey, the lower parts greyish-brown. The bill 
is yellowish-green, darker toward the end; the feet much darker than 
in the adult. Excepting the quills, primary-coverts, tail-feathers, and 
the rump, all the plumage is marked with spots of white, of which there 
is one along the centre of each feather ; those on the neck elongated, 
‘on the back, wings, and breast lanceolate. In this state it is figured 
in the continuation of Wilson’s American Ornithology, by the Prince 
of MustGNano. ; 
Length to end of tail 23 inches. 
This remarkable bird has exercised the ingenuity of the systema-— 
tizing ornithologists, some of whom have considered it as a Heron, 
others a Crane, while many have made it a Rail, and many more a 
