Birds. 5803 



larly marked with alternate transverse bars of black and white, tinged 

 with yellow. Under wing primary coverts black ; secondary coverts 

 black, very elongated, regularly barred with white on the inner webs 

 throughout their entire length, but with merely one white spot on the 

 outer, each feather being tipped with white ; all the smaller coverts, 

 both primary and secondary, are disposed transversely, in close and 

 regular order, like scales, with alternate circular black and white 

 markings, but with a rufous tinge. The leg is feathered to within 

 2-tenths of an inch of the foot. The centre claw is serrated on the 

 inner side, having, with its nine teeth, a regular comb-like appear- 

 ance. The wing has nineteen quills, the first being longest; up to the 

 tenth inclusive regularly decreasing ; from this point or angle of the 

 wing the feathers as gradually increase up to the nineteenth and last. 

 The three last of the secondary coverts are longer than the quills. 

 There is an irregular square white spot on the first quill, at about four 

 inches from the tip, covering the whole breadth of the inner web, and 

 about 3-fourths of an inch in length, but the shaft is black ; the white 

 extends to the fifth quill inclusive, but the spots are irregular and 

 larger, including the shafts as well as outer webs of all but the second 

 quill, which has an oblong spot of white near the shaft, the rest of the 

 outer web being black ; the sixth quill has two faint spots of white on 

 the inner web towards the point ; the seventh has three indistinct and 

 irregular bars of white; the eighth has the same, with a few scattered 

 spots lower down ; the bars of white then become more regular and 

 distinct on the rest of the quills, some of the last having an additional 

 or fourth line of white. The primary coverts are black, tipped with 

 gray ; the secondary coverts are the same, but spotted with white on 

 the outer webs, which are indented and cut out, giving to the feather 

 a most elegant oak-leaf shape ; the rest of the upper coverts, as well 

 as the feathers of the spurious wings, are black, barred, spotted and 

 margined with gray, intermixed with light yellow, the whole of the 

 colours being most beautifully blended, but there is a spot of white at 

 the flexure. The legs and claws are of a dark purplish brown. The 

 white spot on the neck is spear-shaped, passing round towards the 

 ears. 



It was about half-past 4 o'clock p. m. when my attention was first 

 directed to a flight of these most elegant birds ; and a more beautiful 

 sight, at least for an ornithologist, could not be desired; for some 

 forty or fifty were to be seen within a very narrow circle hawking 

 flies ; and their manner of doing so, and rapidity of flight, was in the 

 distance so similar to that of the swallow, that 1 was at first inclined 



