PRATINCOLE. 105 



forked; the general texture of the feathers is silky, fine, 

 and close — the shafts of the quills are very stout at the 

 base, tapering to their tips, and a little turned up at their 

 extremity. 



The beak is broad at the base and pointed at the tip, 

 straight from the forehead on the upper ridge, and arched to 

 a point at the tip, the upper mandible receives the under one 

 within it, the gape is very wide and elastic ; in young birds 

 the beak is not nearly so large as in the adult, which is an 

 apology for some former ornithologists who have made two 

 species of it in consequence. 



The colour of the beak is black, the base of the lower 

 mandible bright vermilion, in the spring particularly. 



The iris is chestnut-brown, and the eyelids are white, 

 consisting of small feathers. The legs are transparent black 

 with a red ground colour, the claws black. 



The feathering of the adult is as follows : — the chin and 

 throat mellow rufous yellow, palest at the chin and sur- 

 rounded by a narrow velvet black band ; the breast is 

 brownish yellow. The belly, thighs, vent, and under 

 tail-coverts white ; the under wing-coverts are rich orange 

 brown ; the head, .neck, back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and 

 tertials umber brown, the rump orange brown, the upper 

 tail-coverts white ; quills dusky ; the feathers of the tail 

 dusky, with their bases white. Male and female nearly 

 alike. 



The young of the year have the upper plumage brown, 

 with reddish-brown edges to the feathers ; the throat pale 

 brown, and the band around it, which is black in the adult, 

 only marked out by a few dusky brown spots ; the breast 

 clouded with brown and dusky, and the under parts pearl- 

 grey and white. 



The egg figured 205, is that of the Pratincole, and 



