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 4! 



witli a broad crescent of blackish brown, and tipped with fulvous ; on tlic sides of the neck, towards the 

 breast, the white is very conspicuous, ^but higher np, and on the hind neck, it diminishes, till at length the 

 dark colour predominates, each feather being blackish brown, with a lunate spot of white in the centre, 

 and tipped with fulvous. The plumage of the upper surface is very beautiful, the whole of the back and 

 rump being blackish brown, edged with pale brown, and glossed with green, while the scapulars, which 

 are of a peculiar elongated form, are marked and varied in a very effective manner; some of the inferior 

 scapulars are white, spotted and marked near the end with a crescent of shining green, while others are 

 blackish brown, with irregular horse-shoe marks of fulvous and white ; the succeeding outer ones are 

 white, bordered on the outer webs and largely freckled with purplish blue ; while the corresponding inner 

 ones are glossy green, with a broad lanceolate stripe of white, shaded with brown down the centre. The 

 longer scapulars are still more brilliant : the outermost one is glossy purplish blue on its outer web, 

 marked on the inner with a lanceolate stripe of satiny white bordered outwardly by shining green ; the 

 next is glossy purplish blue, changing to shining green at the base, and margined on the inner web 

 with white ; the corresponding inner ones are dull velvet-green, with a broad conspicuous streak of 

 white bordered with brown down the centre; the whole of the small wing-coverts are of a delicate 

 lilac-blue, glossed with ]3urple ; the secondary coverts are pure white in their exposed portion, purplish 

 black underneath: primaries dark brown, with paler shafts; secondaries velvet-brown, glossed with 

 green, the outer ones rich shining green on their outer webs, the long inner ones marked down the 

 shaft on their inner webs with a lanceolate streak of pale brown ; the closed wing presenting a large 

 bright speculum of satiny green, bordered anteriorly above with white : under surface of wings and 

 axillary plumes pure white ; along the edges of the wings and towards the flexure a few irregular 

 markings of steel-brown ; lower part of breast and all the undcrparts rich castaneous, very glossy, and 

 obscurely blotched and spotted with black; sides of the body and flanks deep chestnut, with a series 

 of elegant crescent-shaped bands, which become more conspicuous on the long plumage overlapping the 

 thighs; on each side of the rump a broad patch of white, freckled and vermiculated with brown; tail 

 greenish black; upper and lower coverts rich shining green, like the speculum. Irides bright yellow; 

 bill black; feet orange-yellow. Length 21 inches; extent of wings 31; wing, from flexure, 9'75; 

 tail 4; bill, from base to extremity of upper mandible 2-5, width at the base '6, greatest anterior 

 expansion 1-4, length along the edge of lower mandible 2*75; tarsus I'S; middle toe and claw 2*1; 

 greatest span of web 2. 



Obs. The above description is taken from a fine specimen in my collection in the best condition of plumage ; 

 but it should be mentioned that examples of the adult male present much diversity in the details 

 of their colouring. In some specimens the white crescents on the cheeks are broken or indistinct, and 

 do not meet on the chin, while in others they are very broad and well defined, and at their junction 

 spread over the throat in a long irregular patch. The extent of the white markings on the upper part 

 of the breast and sides of the neck likewise varies considerably in different individuals, as also do the 

 tints of the plumage generally. In birds that have not reached the perfection of maturity the dark 

 crescents on the sides of the body are often wanting, being represented merely by'a few transverse bars 

 of dark brown. 



Adidt female. Crown of the head, nape, back of neck, and all the upper surface blackish brown, each 

 feather broadly margined with fulvous ; all the undcrparts pale ochre-brown, on the sides of the head 

 and neck thickly studded with linear punctations, on the breast and sides largely blotched, and on the 

 abdomen mottled with blackish brown ; on closer examination it is seen that on the breast, where the 

 dark colour predominates, each feather is blackish brown in the centre, with light margins; on the 



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