1780 Birds. 



powdered with grayish-white ; the primaries light-brown, broadly 

 edged with dark-brown, except the first, which has the whole of the 

 outer and great part of the inner web dark- brown ; all the visible part 

 of the secondaries white, slightly powdered with gray, and forming a 

 white bar across the wing ; about a quarter of an inch near the ends 

 of these feathers is black, and the tips are white in the immature bird, 

 but in the adult the white is hardly visible ; at both ages the upper- 

 most feathers of the speculum are of a more uniform gray than the 

 lower, and more or less edged with black ; the rump and upper tail- 

 coverts black, this colour being spread over a much greater extent in 

 the adult than in the immature bird ; on the chin is a small triangular 

 spot of yellowish-white ; the lower part of the breast and belly, in the 

 immature specimen, yellowish-brown mixed with light gray, and slightly 

 freckled with black ; the yellow colour giving place to the gray, and 

 the part becoming darker as the bird attains maturity ; the feathers 

 about the vent are in the immature birds white at the sides, and 

 freckled with dark gray in the centre, the youngest bird also exhibit- 

 ing in this part a good deal of yellowish -brown ; in the adult entirely 

 of dark gray ; the legs and toes dark bluish-gray, the webs and claws 

 black. 



The total length of Mr. Bartlett's bird (of which a figure ap- 

 pears in the background of the cut) was before preservation 17j 

 inches ; from the carpal-joint to the end of the wing 7f inches ; the 

 beak from the middle of the forehead If inches ; the middle toe with 

 the claw 2 J inches. 



This species may be distinguished from F. ferina externally, by its 

 smaller size ; the much smaller space occupied by the black colour 

 at the base of the bill ; the yellowish colour of the irides ; the greater 

 extent of the dark colour on the breast, which reaches further both 

 upwards and downwards, than in the common species, and is, I think, 

 at no age in such strong contrast with the colour of the neck and 

 head ; and by the purple tint and finer texture of the neck and breast- 

 feathers ; by the white bar on the wing, and by the much darker tint of 

 the freckled parts. 



Internally, the eye, when removed from the head, was, in Mr. Gur- 

 ney's bird, found to be considerably larger than that of F. ferina ; the 

 trachea (of which an engraving, showing both sides of the bony en- 

 largement appears in the next page*) differs materially from that of the 



* It should be observed here, that the trachea has been represented in a curved 

 position, only because the size of the page would not admit of its being introduced en- 

 tire in any other form. 



