324 
AFRICAN FRANCO LIN. 
This species has the upper part of its head 
and the occiput clothed with black feathers, with 
reddish edges : a narrow red band, sprinkled 
with black, extends down each side of the neck, 
and another of white, whose feathers are tipped 
with black, runs parallel with tlie first, and ter- 
minates at the lower part of the neck, where it 
joins a third, arising from beneath the eyes : the 
throat is white, spotted with black : the breast is 
yellow-red, varied with grey-blue : the feathers of 
the upper parts of the body are of a deep grey, 
each varied with a spot of black, and rufous zigzag 
lines : the wing-coverts are brighter ash, with 
transverse black bars : the shafts of all the feathers 
of the upper parts of the body, as well as of the 
wing-quills, are white : the quills are brown, with 
a zigzag stripe extending the whole length of the 
outer web : the feathers on the sides of the body 
and lateral parts of the breast are shaded with 
grey-blue, and have each a large spot of chesnut- 
red near their middle, and a few are sprinkled 
with oval white marks, which are most numerous 
on the belly, where they approach each other : the 
tail is black, striped with transverse undulated 
lines of a bright rufous : the tarsi of the male are 
armed with a very sharp spur, and are of a yellow- 
brown, as are also the toes : the beak is brown : 
the female has a hard tubercle in place of the 
spur, and in plumage exactly resembles the male : 
its length is about one foot. 
Common in the country of the Hottentots : its 
principal food consists of various species of bulbous 
