63 LAPWING SANDPIPER. Class JI. 



TION. 



Descrip- Their weight is about eight ounces; the 

 length thirteen inches and a half; the breadth 

 two feet and a half. The bill is black, and lit- 

 tle more than an inch long ; the crown of the 

 head of a shining blackness ; the crest of the 

 same color, consisting of about twenty slender 

 unwebbed feathers of unequal lengths, the 

 longest are four inches ; the cheeks and sides 

 of the neck are white, but beneath each eye is 

 a black line ; the throat and fore part of the 

 neck are black ; the plumage on the hind part 

 mixed with Avhite, ash color, and red ; the back 

 and scapulars are of a most elegant glossy 

 green, and the latter finely varied with purple ; 

 the lesser covert feathers of the wings are of a 

 resplendent black blue and green ; the greater 

 quil feathers black, but the ends of the four 

 first are marked with a white spot; the upper 

 half of the lesser quil feathers are black, the 

 lower white ; those, next the body, of the same 

 colors with the scapulars ; the breast and belly 

 are white ; the vent-feathers and the coverts of 

 the tail orange color. The tail consists of twelve 

 feathers ; the outmost on each side is white, 

 marked on the upper end of the inner web with 

 a dusky spot ; the upper half of all the others 

 are black, tipt with a dirty white ; their lower 



