Mr. Selbt's Account of Two Rare British Birds. T]5 



bill, two inches and five-eights ; the colour, blackish brown, inclining 

 to flesh red at the base ; forehead, cheeks, and chin, blackish brown, 

 having a soft velvety appearance : crown and occiput, deep black, with 

 a few yellowish specks upon the eyebrows ; neck and upper part of 

 breast, dingy yellowish brown, the shafts of the feathers and a transverse 

 bar near their tips, black ; mantle, black, each feather with a small 

 yellowish spot on each side the rachis near the tip ; scapulars, black, 

 barred and tipped with buff and yellowish brown ; the tertials with paler 

 bars ; wing coverts, blackish brown, those near the ridge of the wing 

 immaculate, the rest with yellowish brown bars ; quills, deep hair brown ; 

 rump and under tail coverts, barred with yellowish brown and black ; 

 tail feathers, black, with two bars of pale chesnut brown near their tips, 

 the extreme end black ; tail, extending about five-eights of an inch 

 beyond the closed wings : lower breast, belly, and abdomen, deep 

 brocoli brown, and shewing upon the sides undulations and bars of a 

 paler colour ; under wing coverts and wing, axillary feathers very deep 

 brocoli brown, inclining to blackish brown ; legs and toes blackish grey 

 the tarsus nearly 1 inch and a quarter in length. It proved a female^ 

 and the ovary contained a vast number of embryo eggs, some of them as 

 large as a No. 5 shot. 



