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I stood with my eyes within two feet of the bird; she, however, never moved, but sat calmly 

 gazing at me with her bright dark eye. She looked so nice and sleek and cosy that I hesitated 

 to disturb her ; but the eggs of this species are almost, if not entirely, unknown in European 

 collections, and I thought it only right to secure all I could ; so I emptied a cap-box into my 

 pocket, and had some soft rags torn to shreds, and then put my hand out gently to the nest. 

 Away flitted the old bird, disclosing, alas! three fluffy nestlings; I drew back my hand, and that 

 very instant the female returned and hid the chicks under her. They were very young, and the 

 morning air on this lone pinnacle was very cold ; hence her extraordinary tameness. The nest, 

 built on the flat bottom of the niche, was perfectly circular, with an external diameter at bottom 

 of about 5*5 in., and an internal at top of about 2 - 5. The lower portion was composed of fine 

 twigs, the upper portion and the lining of the cavity, so far as the young ones allowed this to be 

 seen, of fine grass stems. Altogether the nest was about 2*5 in. high, and very neat and symme- 

 trical. Judging from my present experience, I should say that three is the full number of eggs 

 usually laid. 



" I subjoin descriptions and exact dimensions taken from freshly killed specimens : — 

 Dimensions. — Male: Length 5 - 75 to 5 97; expanse 9-37 to 9*75; tail from vent 2T5 to 2-75; 

 wing from carpal joint to tip of longest primary 2 - 96 to 3T, and when closed reaching within 

 IT to 1"3 of the end of the tail; foot, greatest length from 1 to IT, greatest width from *63 to 

 •8; bill from front '36 to "39; weight from T5 to *5 oz. (Seven males measured and weighed.) 

 Female: Length 5 "5 to 5 - 9 ; expanse 9 to 9 - 5 ; tail from vent 2"2 to 2"72 ; wing from carpal joint 

 to tip of longest primary 2-87 to 2-96, when closed reaching within IT to 1*7 of the end of the 

 tail; foot, greatest length IT to 1T7, greatest width -72 to *8; bill from front "35 to '38; weight 

 from '38 to "6 oz. (Five females measured and weighed.) 



"■Description. — The legs and feet were in some pale waxy-yellow, in some dingy, in some 

 fleshy-yellow or yellowish-fleshy, the feet, especially at the joints, more or less tinged with 

 brownish, the claws rather pale brown ; the bill had the upper mandible brown, in some 

 blackish brown, the lower in some waxy, in some fleshy, and in some dingy yellow; irides 

 brown. The male has the forehead, top of the head, and nape greyish-white, grey, or white, in 

 different specimens, each feather with a conspicuous linear, median, black streak, a narrow, pure- 

 white superciliary stripe starting from the base of the bill and extending behind the eye over the 

 ear-coverts ; the lores, and a moderately broad stripe directly behind the eye (and immediately 

 under the white stripe), involving the upper portions of the ear-coverts, black ; below this another, 

 greyish white stripe, involving the rest of the ear-coverts ; below this, starting from the base of 

 the lower mandible, a black stripe ; below this, from the lower angle of the lower mandible, a 

 greyish white stripe, which, again, is divided from the greyish white of the chin by a narrow 

 inconspicuous dark streak. 



" In the fresh birds in breeding-plumage which I am describing, all these streaks and stripes 

 are as clearly and sharply defined as if painted ; but at other seasons, and in stuffed specimens, 

 they are not so clear. The whole of the back, scapulars, and tertials are hair-brown, the former 

 two very broadly, the latter more narrowly margined with pale, more or less sandy- or even 

 rufous-brown. In many specimens the darker median streaks of the back-feathers are reduced to 

 mere lines; and in some the rufous tinge on the upper back is well marked. The primaries and 



