256 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



same colour as the crown of the head, mottled with a few 

 spots of a deeper shade. Rump and tail, pure white, 

 crossed by a bar of grey on the upper tail coverts. 

 Dorsal plumes, two inches longer "than tail, of a deep 

 grey, and one broadly edged with white, another sprinkled 

 with white towards the extremity ; others were nearly all 

 white, the grey colour forming a dark line down the centre 

 only. Wings, white, patched with same grey colour on 

 the scapulars. Primaries, tipped on the outer edges with 

 brownish-grey ; under parts, pure white. This is doubt- 

 less the Blue Heron (Ardea c&rulea), beginning to assume 

 its purple plumage, the same as described by me on the 

 30th of April last. 



It was exceedingly fat, and the tips of the outer pri- 

 maries worn off, apparently by use. 



May \^th. — Dr. Laird informs me that he has killed 

 two Tyrant Flycatchers of late, and seen one Purple 

 Gallinule. 



May iStk. — Hearing that some " White Partridges," 

 packed in ice, had arrived in the mail steam~packet, 

 " Levantine," from Halifax, Nova Scotia, I made a point 

 of ascertaining the fact. Found five or six brace of the 

 birds still unsold, and purchased a leash of them. They 

 proved to be the Willow Ptarmigan, or Grouse (Lagopus 

 albus of Audubon). That which I examined was sixteen 

 and one-third inches in length ; the bill remarkably stout ; 

 a conspicuous spot of red wattle over each eye. Tail of 

 sixteen feathers; the centre pair white, the remainder 

 black with white tips (Audubon must be in error when he 

 gives the number of tail feathers as fourteen only). Wings 

 as described in Audubon's " Synopsis." These birds were 



